Trailer full of Christmas layaway gifts stolen from Pearland business

PEARLAND, TX (KTRK) -- Pearland police are searching for thieves who stole a trailer full of Christmas layaway gifts. The owner of the north main street business is furious and wants the Grinch thieves caught.

It's been less than a year since Jennifer McDougald opened her Pearland shop Legacy Home Staging and Furniture Painting. Inside the colorful store everything old is new again. She quit her corporate job to pursue her love of refinishing old furniture.

She said, "The coolest thing we found was a 1984 Astros ticket."

She refinishes a lot of family heirlooms adding, "It's something passed down from their grandma to their mom and maybe now they are getting it. It's old oak, dark cherry wood that doesn't go with their updated decor."

With Christmas coming layaways and overflow pieces were stored in a warehouse and a 24-foot-trailer parked out front. Friday night McDougald says she arranged furniture inside and secured the trailer with four locks. The next morning the trailer and its contents were all gone.

She said, "I feel kind of numb now because I cried so much about it, what bothers me the most are people have been paying on these pieces of furniture. These are pieces they handpicked, they are all unique."

More than anything the store owner wants the furniture back for her customers.

She said, "I figure they dumped the furniture somewhere and that kind of breaks my heart."

If someone finds the furniture, even broken, she says she could make it whole once again.

As for the thieves, "I feel like if you want something you can have it you just have to work for it like the rest of us. But God will do his thing and I'll do mine," says McDougald.

The contents and the trailer are worth about $10,000. If you have any information call Pearland Police Department.