Dawn Richards had inflatable snowmen and lights worth around £500 taken from outside her Leigh Road home early on Monday morning.

The Penhill grandmother-of-nine said: “It was very upsetting when I got up and saw they were gone. I didn’t hear anyone outside the house.”

The massive light display included a giant inflatable polar bear, three inflatable snowmen, two Father Christmas inflatables and a penguin. A projector shining green laser lights onto the front of the terraced home was also taken.

Dawn said she had put up the decorations on December 9. “I put them up for my dad, Eddie, really,” she said. “He passed away 27-years-ago on December 10 and he was a big Christmas man. We’d always done it for him.”

The reason for the theft remained a mystery: “I presume they must have taken them to sell them, but I don’t know. I just don’t know why someone would take them.”

Wiltshire Police said the Leigh Road incident was one of two Christmas decoration thefts being investigated by police, raising fears of a Grinch crime spree. Officers were keeping an open mind over whether the same thief was responsible for both crimes.