The actual life Grinch who has stolen Christmas: Children in scenic village cannot put up letters to Santa after historic put up field was taken by merciless thief
Children planning to send letters to Santa have been hit after a Victorian post box was stolen in the middle of the night from a scenic Pennine hamlet.
A Whodunnit over the crime has gripped the attention of locals in Tunnel End, West Yorkshire, while police and Royal Mail bosses have launched investigations.
The red cast iron ‘VR’ box, which was recently repainted, was hauled out of a stone wall where it had stood for more than 120 years.
Some residents believe it was swiped to sell on eBay while others are convinced it was stolen ‘to order’ by a mystery local.
The thief has been likened to children’s author Dr Seuss‘s mean-spirited character The Grinch, who stole Christmas decorations and presents from the cheerful Whos.
The theft happened overnight between Saturday, November 29, and Sunday, November 30.
Locals believe it may have been taken in the early hours, as a vehicle was captured on the village’s only CCTV camera at 2am.
However, the actual theft was not caught on camera and residents said they did not hear the criminals hammering the post box from the wall.
The historic post box at Tunnel End had been in use since Victorian times before it was stolen
The thieves left a gaping hole in a wall after somehow chiselling or dragging out the post box
Local resident Chris Hughes, who has a young son, branded the thieves ‘real life scrooges’
Tunnel End is famous for its historic canal tunnel dating back to 1795 and is normally a tranquil rural backwater.
Mother-of-three Jodie Carter, 37, said: ‘I’m really angry about it. My children use that post box to post Christmas letters.
‘They were going to post their letters to Santa from there. No-one heard anything. I think someone has taken it to sell on eBay as they go for quite a bit of money. It’s a real shame it’s been taken.’
Another resident, Brian Hooper, 64, said: ‘It’s a very strange theft and it’s sad that some kids can’t post their Santa letters in the village.
‘I hope the police catch whoever took it. It feels a bit like something the Grinch would do.’
Engineer Chris Hughes, 32, who has a two-year-old son, said: ‘It’s unbelievable that’s someone’s taken it.
‘Everyone is shocked it’s been taken. We were thinking of using it to post our son’s letter to Santa. But now we can’t. These thieves are real-life Scrooges.’
He added: ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been stolen to order as the post box probably isn’t worth a lot on its own. I just hope we get another one.’
Retired publican Gary Earnshaw, who believes the post box may have been stolen to order
Retired publican Gary Earnshaw, 68, said: ‘A car was caught on my CCTV at about 2am.
‘I don’t know who’s taken it but I think it’s been stolen to order as it’s just cast iron so it’s not worth a lot of money.
‘You wouldn’t know it was there unless you’re a local. I think someone wants it as an ornament in their house of garden.
‘We’re all a bit stunned it has been taken as we use it a lot to make sure we used it a lot to make sure the Post Office kept it operational.’
Semi-retired financial advisor Stuart Barlow, 57, said: ‘I know it happened sometime between 10pm when I came home and 9am when I got up and noticed it had gone.
‘I reported it to the police. There was a theft of of stones from a wall recently and they also struck in the early hours of Sunday morning so it could be the same gang.
‘It would be pretty heavy so you’d need more than one person to carry it.
Perhaps it is someone who is renovating a large house nearby and they wanted the stones and the post box for their big house. It is very disappointing someone has taken it.’
A retired postman in the village told the Mail: ‘The theft of post boxes is rare but it does happen. The rumour is that it is someone who is local who’s ordered it.
A local walking the dog in the scenic hamlet of Tunnel End, now gripped by a ‘Whodunnit’ over the theft of the historic post box
‘The VR post boxes are sought-after but the real rare ones are GR which was the King George era as there are less of them.’
Tom Lonsdale, a landscape architect who is designing a ‘regeneration masterplan’ for the Marsden area, said the theft ‘damages everyone’. He added there have also been reports of historic coping stones from walls, roofing flagstones and wrought iron features in the area.
Mr Lonsdale said: ‘In addition to to the obvious inconvenience and potential financial consequences the most insidious aspect is the fact that ‘theft of our landscape’ damages everyone.
‘Where valuables such as jewellery, electrical gadgets, etc., can be profoundly painful to the individual victims, but can generally be replaced like-for-like, stealing the cultural fingerprints of history deprives the whole of society and changes the very places we live.
‘Other similar offences locally have included theft distinctive coping stones that linked back to the construction of the canal and reservoirs. Theft of roofing flags is depressingly common, as also wrought iron gates and features.’
He added: ‘On a different level but with similar connotations is the extensive littering and fly-tipping that proliferates among a breed of individuals who clearly attach no value to the aesthetics of the landscape they despoil.
‘It is impossible to comprehend a brain that considers the transport of a canned drink or bag of sweets to a beautiful location a tolerable task but transport of the relatively weightless container home to be too much effort.’
The small village of Tunnel End is at one end of the longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel in the UK, on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Tunnel End, approaching UK’s longest, deepest canal tunnel
The hamlet is near the bigger village of Marsden, which is about seven miles from Huddersfield.
The three-and-a-quarter mile-long canal tunnel, was dug using pickaxes, shovels and gunpowder over 16 years from 1795.
It is flanked by a railway tunnel, two disused service tunnels and a reservoir overflow chute.
West Yorkshire Police are investigating the theft of the post box.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: ‘We are aware of reports that a post box has unfortunately been stolen.
‘We take the theft of Royal Mail property very seriously, and we will work closely and cooperate with law enforcement agencies to prevent the unlawful removal of post boxes.’
