Santa Claus Figure Equipped with Tracking Device After Theft

A life-sized replica of Santa Claus has been fitted with a location tracker after its prior version was stolen earlier this month. Paul De Fraine has displayed the Father Christmas outside his residence in Little Milton, Oxfordshire, every December for the “past four or five years”. This year’s display was taken on 5 December, and has since been replaced by a trackable duplicate. Mr De Fraine stated that the considerable public support he had received since the theft had been a “huge surprise”. Explaining his annual creation of the Santa model, he remarked: “All of the kids walk past our house to school, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to have something funny going on as they went to school before Christmas.” He further added that he had “no idea” who had stolen this year’s figure. Local resident Liz Jones, who regularly walks her dog past the Santa display, described the theft as “disgraceful”. She commented: “It’s difficult enough to find something to make children smile these days with all the rain and wind and miserable weather we’ve been having.” In previous years, Mr De Fraine has positioned his Santa figure in various different situations, including climbing a ladder, waving, and drinking a bottle of wine. He mentioned that the replacement had been constructed with the assistance of “the local dealer of [plumbers] pipes”, which is the primary material of the model. He elaborated: “The new one has got a tracker in it, so if they try it again it’ll be tracked to wherever it gets dumped or whoever’s house he ends up.” Individuals can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content found on external sites. Information regarding our approach to external linking is available.