Decoration winner gets scrooged

Photo by JASON EASTERLY // Buy this photo

Christmas decorations at 160 Bermuda on Marco Island.

Somebody out there clearly is not in the Christmas spirit. But Linda Wynns isn’t letting it get her down. Wynns won (no pun intended) the Christmas Island Style Home Decorating Contest after judging Friday night.

She received a sign declaring her home the winner, and she proudly displayed it in her front yard, where it joined a bevy of twinkling lights.

Until Sunday night, that is, when someone stole the sign. Wynns notified the police, who came to her house at 160 Bermuda Rd., and said there wasn’t much that could be done.

“The police officer said this kind of thing happens all of the time,” she said. “He meant misdemeanor thefts. But this event only happens once a year.”

Wynns said she has no idea whether the theft is related to the competition.

“I would hope not,” she said. “I honestly don’t know.”

Wynns, a four-year resident, said she and her husband, Quiricho, and her sister Barbara Maikisch have had decorations in the semifinals of the competition for every year they have lived on Marco. But they don’t decorate to compete, she said.

“We’ve never felt that it’s been competitive to us,” she said. “We don’t do it to compete; we do it for the joy of decorating. We do it so people can come and enjoy our lights.”

But that doesn’t mean that some other people don’t get a little overzealous about it.

Wynns won’t point fingers though. That’s not the point of Christmas.

“The Grinch may have stolen the sign,” she said, “but our lights are still shining bright, and the spirit of Christmas still goes on.”