How A Grinch Nearly Stole Nantucket's Christmas

A real-life Grinch nearly sabotaged Nantucket's Christmas tree lighting ceremony late last month, a celebration of the holiday season that brought hundreds of people to Main Street, including former President Joe Biden and his family.

Just hours before the event, which is held each year by the Chamber of Commerce on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Department of Public Works staff members discovered that someone had deliberately cut the wires to the large Christmas tree at the top of Main Street in front of the Pacific National Bank, the centerpiece of the celebration.

In a Nantucket police report obtained by the Current, DPW employee Richard Moore reported around 3:53 p.m. on the day of the tree lighting ceremony that "an unknown party had cut the string of lights on the Main Street Christmas Tree, rendering the
lighting inoperable."

The DPW crew had discovered the vandalism earlier that day during a routine testing of the lighting system ahead of the event. They were able to fix the wires before the event, and the lighting ceremony went on without a hitch later that evening.

The real-life Grinch who cut the lines, however, remains at large and has yet to be identified.

Nantucket Police Department officer Jack Moran wrote in his report that his investigation determined the wires had been cut on the interior side of the tree that faces the front stairs to the Pacific National Bank at approximately eye-level. Moran was able to secure surveillance camera footage from nearby businesses in an attempt to identify the perpetrator.

"This case remains open for investigation, pending the discovery of video footage from the camera discovered," Moran wrote.