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Santa, Rudolph find way back to Dahlia St.

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 16, 2008 at 11:12 a.m.

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Mike Thurman stands at his Denver home, where somebody stole a Santa and reindeer. The icons were returned Sunday night.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Mike Thurman stands at his Denver home, where somebody stole a Santa and reindeer. The icons were returned Sunday night.

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It was late Sunday night when a car approached the corner house on Dahlia Street in Denver, slowed down and tossed two Santas and a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer near the gutter - Quentin Tarantino-style.

There were no footprints in the snow where they were left and their outlines were still visible Tuesday afternoon.

The Rudolph was the worst off - both antlers had been removed and his red nose was slightly scraped. The 5-foot-tall Santa had some mangled wiring inside his belly but otherwise was fine.

For Mike Thurman and his family, the return of the Christmas icons was a reason to celebrate the holiday season - even if it was a gritty affair that left the reindeer maimed and awaiting antler transplants.

"Someone did the right thing," Thurman said. "I only wish I got a chance to meet them."

The Claus caper started when someone stole the Thurmans' newly acquired Rudolph and Santa from the family's front lawn.

Mike Thurman filed a police report Dec. 7 and put up a yard sign asking for their safe return - no questions asked. At the time he said he believed the people who committed the crime would return the decorations.

His wife, Linda Thurman, wasn't so optimistic. "I thought we'd never see them again," she said.

But the publicity generated about the missing Santa and Rudolph touched a Christmas chord with people. A local radio station wanted to replace the missing Santa and Rudolph. Mike Thurman asked that it donate to charity instead. The station left behind a smaller Santa anyway.

Then a woman in Castle Rock gave the Thurmans a Santa, reindeer and a sleigh.

With the return of the original Santa and the bonus Santa in the drive-by return, Thurman now has four Santas - a Christmas bounty that left him wondering what it all meant.

"I'm guessing someone else is missing their Santa," he said. "Now I'll have to try and find out who it belongs to."

As for the extra Santas, Thurman hopes to donate them.

"The plastic yard gods have smiled upon me," he said. "Now I've got to pass on the good karma."