A great-grandmother from Downham was “disgusted” after callous thieves repeatedly stole her Christmas lights.

Catherine Bell, 76, put up inflatable light-up decorations in her front garden, and had a snowman, a reindeer and a Father Christmas.

But on Christmas Eve they vanished from the front garden of Mrs Bell’s house, who lives with her 56-year-old daughter Karen - who is blind and has Downs Syndrome.

MORE TOP STORIES The grandmother of three, who lives in Fairfield Road, told News Shopper: “My grandson brought some presents round and he said Nan where are your lights.

“I thought they’d probably deflated but they weren’t there when I went to have a look. All I found was the wires through the window.

“I had a reindeer with a red glowing nose, they’re fairly big, they were all gone.

“You don’t want to know what I thought when I saw that.”

All the festive decorations were brand new, costing her £20 each.

But powered by insulated outdoor wires, which inflate the ornaments, they would be useless to the thieves who cut the wires.

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Where they were stolen from

Mrs Bell, who is also a mother of four, added: “As soon as it’s unplugged it deflates, you have to have it plugged in.

“So they’re no use to them now, I just don’t know why.

“They were only up for a few days, it’s ridiculous.”

Not stopping there, two days after Christmas Mrs Bell, a widow, discovered thieves had stolen her lit up wreath from her front door.

She said: “I came down in the morning went to plug it in and thought there’s no wreath, I opened the door and it was just gone.

“I was shocked to think the ornaments had gone and now the wreath.

“I and my daughter were disgusted.

“For the last two years I’ve had the wreath taken off the door and ended up on the floor, that didn’t bother me too much but this cost me a bit of money, £30, it lit up.”

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Mrs Bell with the cut wreath wires

Again all she found was the cut wires leading from her letterbox.

With no luck finding the culprit, she said: “I don’t think it was kids, they would have had to have wire cutters or whatever else you need to cut through wires.

"They would have come out equipped.

“It’s quite dangerous to cut wires anyway.”

The first year she put out lights, she vowed never to do it again.

She added: “Luckily I didn’t put out all the lights I had planned to.

“I don’t know why they did it, they couldn’t get anything out of it. I have to save up my money to buy these things.

“Things like that happen it does ruin your Christmas. It’s scary when it’s just me and my daughter in the house.”