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OREM — As a young family returned to their apartment late Tuesday night, Orem police said they were welcomed home from their Christmas vacation by a real Grinch.
"He helps his wife and baby into the apartment and helps his wife and baby inside, he was only in there for a few short minutes and comes out and someone is on his front porch, basically digging through his luggage," said Orem Police Department Lt. Craig Martinez.
The man claimed he was looking for a friend and quickly took off — wearing no coat and flip-flops — at 10 p.m.
"He brings the luggage in the house and notices the top zipper is open, and that is where he had stored a watch he had just got for Christmas, looks in the pocket and notices the watch is gone," said Martinez.
The victim called police, and a couple of hours later an Orem officer patrolling a nearby strip mall jumped into action.
"(He) saw a man matching that description and when the man sees him, he takes off running. He was running in the snow in flip-flops, and so our officer had a pretty easy time catching him," Martinez said.
He added that the man was cooperative and told them whom he had sold the watch to a few minutes earlier for $40. He was cited on theft charges.
Officers woke up the victim at 2:30 Wednesday morning and returned his Christmas gift. Martinez said the moral to this story is simple: You should never steal, especially when you are not dressed for the winter weather.
"Our officer made the good choice to wear boots that night so, the flip-flops in the snow…. that is not going to end good for anybody," he said.
