These people aren't afraid of ending up on Santa's naughty list.
About a dozen trees were stolen from a Maine Christmas tree farm on Saturday night in what the owner says is the latest in a string of thefts from his seasonal business.
"I'm just getting tired of it, and that's why I called the police today, just to have an officer come over," Todd Murphy, who owns Trees to Please in Norridgewock, Maine, told the Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel.
The 26-acre farm works on an honor system, so usually about 2 percent of his merchandise goes unpaid for, Murphy said. But this year he said customers haven't been so honorable. Saturday's theft saw nearly $400 worth of trees lost. A wreath was taken the day before that and another 20 trees were taken a week earlier, the owner said.
About 5 percent of his merchandise, or about $2,000 worth of Christmas trees and wreaths, have disappeared this year from the Smithfield Road farm.
"For a seasonal business that's pretty substantial. We're only open four weeks a year. It's a feel-good product and we operate largely on an honor system," Murphy told the newspaper. "When it gets really busy sometimes people don't want to wait and they just leave."
Murphy, who sells already-cut trees and ones customers cut themselves, tried moving the cut trees to a section behind the gift shop to discourage would-be thieves. The farm also has security cameras.
But his efforts were futile, and sneaky customers use the cover of darkness to enter the farm's gate, which is not locked overnight, to steal the trees, Murphy said.
"You're never going to catch a thief, but you can slow it down. We want people to know that we know it's going on," he told the newspaper.
Murphy has threatened to raise the price of his trees, which usually cost $30, if the thefts continue.
