COLUMBIA, Maine — Sometime Tuesday night, real-life Grinches sneaked through a barn on Schoodic Road and down a path in the dark to steal 172 holiday wreaths ready for sale.
Valorie Geel, 53, and her sister Debbie Skeate, 50, had been making the undecorated wreaths for weeks, as they have done for more than 20 years.
The sisters support themselves through a variety of seasonal occupations — they rake blueberries, farm vegetables and in the late fall, begin making wreaths.
“They are sold to different vendors. They go to florists in New Hampshire, there are special orders, six were even for the Milbridge Congregational Church,” Geel said Thursday.
When the sisters went to begin their day at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, they discovered that all 172 wreaths had been stolen — $870 worth.
“We just could not believe it,” Geel said.
“They were all 12-inch, double-sided wreaths,” Geel said. “They are really beautiful, really pretty. We know that [the thieves] knew where to find them. They went right through my grandmother’s barn and down the path.”
Geel said she and her sister were right back at it Thursday. “We have more to make, including the ones for our family’s graves,” she said. But Geel admitted that the theft hurt.
“We live in a caring community, and everyone has been so supportive,” she said. “We look at it like, OK, they’re gone. That’s done. Now we pull up our boot straps and get back to work.”
The theft is being investigated jointly by the Forest Protection Division of the Maine Forest Service and the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
Forest Ranger Courtney Hammond said that this type of theft doesn’t happen often, but he handles about one or two cases each year. Just recently, 1,100 pounds of “tips,” which are the ends of fir boughs used to create wreaths and centerpieces, were stolen at another location in Columbia. That case is close to prosecution, he said.
He said that whoever stole the wreaths from Geel and Skeate was familiar with their operation. “It is still under investigation,” he said.
Although each undecorated wreath may look similar to people outside the industry, Hammond said most wreath buyers say they can tell who makes each wreath, that the style is almost like an individual signature.
“We will know them if we find them,” Hammond said.
Anyone with information about the wreath theft may call Hammond at 827-1800, or Lt. Travis Willey at 255-4422.
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