MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Grinch is stealing Christmas trees in Murfreesboro!
98 Christmas trees went missing from one tree lot in Rutherford County.
"Never in the history of 19 years have we had almost 100 trees go missing from us," said assistant scout master Culann Brown.
Brown, who is a member of Boy Scout Troop 197, says a thief or thieves stole about 20% of the supply from an on-site storage unit. They noticed the theft Monday night and Murfreesboro Police are now investigating.
In the meantime, Culann says they're out $12,000.
The money, which goes back into the troop, paid for their camping and other adventures. Now, not only will they have to cut back on activities, but parents of Scouts might now have to cover the cost.
"I don't know who steals from kids at Christmas," said one customer Thursday night.
"Give [the trees] back," said 14-year-old Boy Scout Tyler Witt. "It's just not right to steal trees from anybody, and it really hurts the troop because we need money to go on our camping trips and summer camp."
The troop is still hoping to sell about 100 more trees from their location at the Fellowship United Methodist Church on New Salem Highway.
They will be open until December 20 or until they sell out. Learn more about when you can shop on their Facebook page. If you haven't already, get out there and get a tree!
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at nikki.hauser@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
