Madera holiday house vandalized
Wendy Alexander/Madera Tribune File Photo
The Cox home on the corner of Lemon Tree Drive and Almond Avenue is an annual holiday feature in Madera. The Cox’s decorations were vandalized on Nov. 29.
For the past 15 years, Jeff Cox has been decorating his house at the corner of Lemon Tree and Almond for the holidays, but most importantly Christmas.
However, a ‘Scrooge’ almost took the Christmas spirit from Cox by vandalizing three inflatables on Nov. 29 in front of his house.
“They did it really early at night at 8 p.m.,” he said. “I was still up and my daughter happened to look out and see the inflatables deflated.”
Cox has been putting out displays for the past 15 years, but this is the first time he has had his decorations vandolized.
“This is the first time it has been vandalized like that,” he said. “We’ve had stuff knocked over before and little stuff stolen. Nothing like this. That Santa and reindeer are over 16-foot long and over $200. The other was a Mickey on reindeer. That’s one of my favorites and don’t want to get rid it.”
Cox has video footage of the vandal maliciously cutting through three inflatables in his yard and even tripping over Christmas lights on his way out of his yards. He believes that it’s the same person that vandalized a Thanksgiving turkey inflatable and another inflatable on Nov. 16.
“He was wearing different clothes,” Cox said. “ I want this guy caught or stopped. Somebody knows this guy.”
Cox’s story got out to ABC-30, who did a segment with Cox on Monday. According to ABC-30, his story was picked by an affiliate in Los Angeles. Cox said that his story was even a topic on a local radio show.
“I felt violated,” he said. “The Christmas spirit was gone. I was thinking about taking everything down and putting a Grinch out there. I even bought a Grinch.”
However, some ‘elves’ dropped by his house the other night to rekindle his Christmas spirit.
“We had some people come over tonight and they brought us candy and a card,” Cox said. “It had money and they talked about how their kids drive by all the time. It makes you feel really good and get the Christmas spirit back. My wife was crying. To have a whole family come to door and give you money to repair things was great. It’s amazing to hear about the people and how they are talking about.”
Although the vandal may have damaged the inflatables, Cox said he will do what he can to rescue them.
“Thank God I’m old enough and know how to sew,” he said.
Cox has sewed up the inflatable that was damaged on Nov. 16 and is contemplating what and when to put out more Christmas decorations.
“I haven’t decided what to do,” he said. “I am not going to do the workshop in the garage this year. I’ll put up more and get some more out this weekend. “It’s so stressful keeping an eye on it all the time. It’s usually done the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our trees are getting so big that the leaves are making a mess. The leaves come down and it doesn’t look good.”
