We know, holiday shopping can be the worst. But that doesn’t mean you can take certain shortcuts like lifting presents from someone else who’s already put in the effort to buy them. Cops say a Chicago man stole not only unopened presents but also credit cards, and then took the time to wrap the presents in new paper and put them under his own Christmas tree.

Police tell the Chicago Tribune that the man robbed two homes for the loot in the wee hours of Dec. 6. He was arrested today after cops staked out his home for 10 hours. Officials say they found the re-wrapped gifts along with a stolen ceiling fan he’d taken the time to install in his own home.

“This is the first time in my 27 years in law enforcement that I have come across a case in which a burglary suspect had stolen property from a home repackaged, re-wrapped with the intent to deliver them as new Christmas gifts to family and friends,” the local police chief said in a statement.

Some presents the man returned for cash or exchanged them for whatever he wanted to give his friends and family instead, say cops, who added that they found surveillance footage showing the man returning the stolen items and buying others with pilfered credit cards.

That almost sounds like more effort than just buying your own presents in the first place, eh?

Police: Burglar stole presents, ‘regifts’ them for friends, family [Chicago Tribune]

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