Christopher Smith, 17, leans on a wooden gingerbread man he and other students helped make for a holiday display.

CNHI News Service

HAVERHILL, Mass. -- Children's stories aside, seven-foot gingerbread men don't just get up and run away. So police and merchants are trying to figure out who lifted one of four such characters from a downtown park.

Students at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High made the wooden gingerbread men to liven up this river town for the holidays. Members of the Chamber of Commerce, who arranged for the display, noticed one of the figures missing Monday.

The thief perhaps didn't consider that local police have surveillance cameras in various parts in the city. One monitors Columbus Park, where the gingerbread man was displayed in a busy district of restaurants and bars near a commuter rail station.

Deputy Chief Donald Thompson said police are reviewing tapes to see if they can spot the thief. The theft likely occurred in the early morning, when there is little activity in the area.

"I don't know what enjoyment the person who took it will get from it," said Thompson.

Meanwhile, the merchants plan to remove the remaining gingerbread men and store them for the next holiday season.

"It is a shame," said chamber President James Jajuga. "This is the Christmas season, a time of giving and sharing and caring, not a time for stealing."

Details for this story were reported by The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.