Vandals cause $2500 worth of damage to young family’s Christmas display

A Queensland neighbourhood’s Christmas spirit has been shattered after a family woke up to discover their $7000 festive front garden display has been destroyed by six heartless vandals.

A BURDELL family’s Christmas spirit has been shattered after waking up to the ultimate low blow during the festive season.

Ben O’Neill, his wife and two young children were given a rude awakening after six vandals destroyed their front garden Christmas display.

The impressive Christmas display took three weeks to set up and included 20,000 standard LED bulbs and 10,000 musical LED lights that was recently added to the display worth $7000.

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The truck driver has been decorating his home for more than 10 years and said the vandals had cut wires to lights and snapped some of the light trees in half.

“I was very shocked when I first saw the damage but I didn’t think that someone had done it, I just thought maybe the strong winds had done it,” he said.

“Then on closer inspection I found the wires had been cut and that’s when I turned to my CCTV (camera) and found the six youths hanging around and then destroying my display.”

The total damage bill from the vandals added up to $2500.

Mr O’Neill has handed the CCTV camera footage over to the police for investigation and plans on pressing charges if the offenders are captured.

Mr O’Neill said he had taken down the majority of the display in fear that the vandals would strike again.

The father of two said the vandalism had destroyed his two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son’s young Christmas spirit.

“Both of my children absolutely love this time of year as they get in and help decorate the whole house in lights,” he said.

“My four-year-old son was the most devastated and he keeps on saying to me that those naughty people broke your lights daddy and they are so mean and it breaks my heart.”

Mr O’Neill said he was frustrated with the state of the city’s safety after the police said all they could do was increase patrols.

“I don’t feel safe in Townsville at all and the crime is getting worse and nothing is getting done about it,” he said.

“The government needs a real wake-up call.”

Originally published as Vandals cause $2500 worth of damage to young family’s Christmas display