Carrie Carley, 42, had been noticing that her 18-year-old husband, Jeremy Lewallen, was taking walks in their Colorado Springs, Colorado, neighborhood in the middle of night, usually around 2 or 3 a.m.
Each time after he returned, she told KKTV-TV, she couldn’t help noticing a growing collection of Christmas decorations in their front yard.
“I didn’t know exactly where it all came from,” Carley told the station.
Things became clearer Dec. 19, when the couple was arrested.
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According to the arrest affidavit obtained by 11 News, a neighbor who had his decorations stolen was driving around his neighborhood when he spotted a very familiar looking Christmas display in the suspects’ front yard. Police served a search warrant there and allegedly found, in the words of one of the theft victims, “a decoration graveyard.”
The couple’s front and back yards were filled with stolen lawn ornaments and Christmas decorations, officers said — about $2,000 worth.
While Carley and Lewallen were both thrown in jail, Carley eventually bonded out and told KKTV that her husband — who was still in the slammer Christmas morning — acted alone.
“I guess he still thinks it’s a game,” she told the station. “He doesn’t seem to care really one way or another. …I asked him, and he was like, ‘Well, this is my job.’ And I’m like, ‘Taking from unassuming people is your job?’”
Arrest papers indicate that Lewallen “chuckled” to police about his exploits and said he didn’t care about who he may have affected, the station reported.
And given Carley’s claim that her husband sat behind bars in November in connection with stealing Halloween decorations, a KKTV reporter asked her why she didn’t get suspicious after noticing her yards slowly filling up with Christmas decorations.
“I just didn’t know what to do, you know, I didn’t know if I called if I was going to get in trouble myself or not, you know, because it was in my yard,” she said.
“I’m very sorry this happened…it shouldn’t happen to anybody and I am very sorry,” she told KKTV. “I don’t know what else I can do to make your Christmas feel any better, but I am truly sorry.”
The couple faces felony theft charges, the station reported; Carley said she will fight them. The stolen decorations were returned to their owners, KKTV said.
