I live at 270 Main St. Perhaps you have driven past our home in previous years during the Halloween season.

We have always put out a spooky display for trick-or-treaters. Last year, we had more than 350 visitors on Halloween night. We even won a prize from the Times a few years ago for our display.

Well, each year there have always been some late night occurrences of minor vandalism and occasionally a stolen tombstone or missing zombie. We have come to expect and accept this as taking a chance on leaving things out in the open.

But on Oct. 23, several high-cost items were stolen (valued at approximately $350). It was very disheartening, to say the least.

It was not just the loss of the items, but also the time it took to set things up (I take days off from work to get it all completed) that has finally broken our spirit considering what this year’s display meant to my husband and me.

My mother became terminally ill last year just after helping us set up the display. She so enjoyed watching the families stop by throughout October taking photos.

At the age of 82, she would still go out and help get everything together and greet people as they stopped by.

After losing her to cancer last November, I was finding it difficult to get into the spirit this year, but friends and family convinced me that mom would be very disappointed if I didn’t make the neighborhood kids happy.

So, with the help of my husband, we put up our display, only to wake up one morning to being violated.

As a result, and after a good cry, we made the decision that the hooligans have won the war. We decided rather than have someone steal from us in the middle of the night, that we would rather give it away to someone who would enjoy them.