MelvinLee

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) - Mary Moran figures she'll turn that 3-foot stump in her front yard into a Christmas statement of sorts. Moran awoke Wednesday to find that a long-needled pine the family had decorated for years was cut down and stolen during the night.

The family planted the pine 10 years ago, and it had grown to 15 to 20 feet high.

"The neighbors and grandkids really looked forward to the tree being lit up," Moran said.

She said the thief probably had chosen the house at the end of a dark cul-de-sac and brought a truck to cart away the tree, which an arborist valued at as much as $1,500.

And the thief had fastidiously taken the lights from the tree, draping them on rocks around the tree's raised bed.

"I'm probably going to string the lights around the base of it and just light the base of it," she said.

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I made a terrible mistake That I can't take back.Now when I close my eyes, All I see is black.Whoever thought,That this would happen to me I'm not chained physically,But mentally,I'll never be the same,Never again.I deeply regret ,what I did.The mistake I can't take back.I regret it deeply, I just have one plea....God please forgive me.