‘TV Santa Claus’ Wearing TV on Head Inexplicably Leaves Old TVs on 50 Doorsteps

When residents of Henrico County, Va., woke up on Sunday morning, a number of them were greeted with the sight of vintage television sets sitting on their doorsteps. But it wasn’t until a few of the recipients checked their doorbell cameras that they discovered the mysterious deliverymen made the drops while wearing what looked like old TVs of their own on their heads.

Henrico Police Lieutenant Matt Pecka told WTVR-TV that more than 50 TVs were left at homes throughout the neighborhood by more than one person “wearing a mask resembling a television.”

“We determined there was no credible threat to residents and that this was strictly an inconvenience. It was…unique,” Pecka said, adding that police were able to round up the TVs in just over an hour on Sunday. The county plans to recycle them.

The general sentiment among residents who were gifted with the old box sets seems to be that the nighttime deliveries were part of a prank. Especially considering that the same thing happened in a nearby Glen Allen neighborhood last August.

“Everyone started coming out of their houses, walking around the neighborhood looking at the TVs there on the doorstep,” Jeanne Brooksbank, one of the recipients, told the Washington Post of Sunday’s incident. “It was very Twilight Zone.”

“He wants to be known as the TV Santa Claus, I don’t know,” Jeanne’s husband, Jim Brooksbank, added. “I can’t think of any technology or political point that would be valid here. It’s just a senseless prank.”