Ivy the Reindeer is home for Christmas.
The distaff version of the plump holiday reindeer that sprawls casually atop a marquee at Tysons Corner Center was AWOL briefly from Monday to Wednesday last week.
But someone responded positively to an offer of amnesty from mall management: Bring her back within 48 hours, and no questions will be asked.
Soon after that, Tysons mall security got a phoned-in “tip” that the reindeer could be recovered from a nearby office building, said Kristina Kromulis, the assistant marketing director for Tysons Corner Center.
“They probably felt bad because they found out how much [the balloon reindeer] are worth — about $15,000 each,” she said.
The tip led to “a nearby building,” where the reindeer was found neatly folded and tied, said Kromulis. The incident is not being investigated as a crime, she said.
“We were just concerned with getting Ivy back,” she said. “We were not concerned with who took her or why, and we are not interested in pressing any charges. We were able to put her back up Wednesday,” she said.
A Fairfax County Police spokesman said Tysons Corner “went out and got the deer themselves, and they never told us.”
An officer was dispatched to the mall, he said, but there was nothing for him to do.
The disappearance was extensively reported by Washington area news outlets, complete with live reports that showed Irving, Ivy’s male colleague on the Route 123 side of the mall, in the background.
But police were not included in the search or recovery of the stolen deer.
Some media outlets speculated that high school students nabbed the reindeer as a prank, and rumors were rampant that Ivy was recovered from a parking lot behind Marshall High School, nearby on Route 7.
“It’s frustrating for us,” said Public Information Officer William Walker. “Our postition is a crime has been committed. [But] we have no evidence and no suspicion that any high school students were involved in this.”
He said Marshall’s School Resource Officer, Tom Harringon, had reported no sign of the deer balloon.
IVY TURNED UP MISSING before dawn on Monday, Nov. 18, when it was still dark.
Someone called mall security to report a power outage that had darkened the mall’s lighted marquee on busy Route 7.
The other reindeer, Irving, overlooks Route 123 from a similar position on the mall marquee.
Just before the holidays every year, both reindeer appear in their fur-trimmed red jackets. They sprawl on Santa-sized tummies with their chins propped between their hooves. Why are they lying on their stomachs?
“I think the position they are in was probably designed for where they are being placed,” Kromulis said, admitting she hadn’t previously pondered the question. “The marquee is high and narrow, almost like a balance beam.”
The reindeer are formed from weather-resistant nylon. They are hooked to a fan that blows constantly to keep them inflated,” Kromolis said.
“That is how they were removed in the first place,” she said. “Someone pulled the plug on the fan, they deflated, and they were able to get them off the marquee.
To keep the same thing from happening again, mall personnel said they will probably lock the electricity box that powers the fan. and “secure the ropes a little more, so they are not so easily untied,” Kromulis said.
The tip that recovered the reindeer was “a complete surprise,” Kromulis said. “A tip came in to the Public Safety Office,” she said.
As the reindeer was reinstated to its position, all was right with the commuters streaming by.
Ivy’s disappearance had gotten saturation coverage from the news media in metropolitan Washington.
Passersby were “yelling and honking horns,” Kromulis said.
“She looks good,” one person yelled out.
IN 1995, A 20-FOOT TALL FROSTY THE SNOWMAN balloon was pinched from the roof of the AT&T building in the Tysons area. It turned up the next Monday morning on the roof of Langley High School, its green mitten waving cheerily as students filed into school.
The $3,500 balloon, which belonged to Balloons Unlimited in Oakton, was damaged by the “Class of ‘96” graffiti spray-painted on its belly. “I ended up selling it to a guy in North Carolina for $500,” said Bob Thomas, who owns Balloons Unlimited.
He didn’t press charges because the parents paid for the balloon. “What else can you ask for?” Thomas said.
Later, a dinosaur balloon at a plant nursery on Old Dominion Drive was damaged during an attempted theft that was interrupted by police.
Several McLean High School students were caught in the act of dismantling and loading the balloon into a car. Thomas said he still has that dinosaur balloon.
“He depreciated 100 percent, but he is still usable,” Thomas said. “It was a brand-new balloon. They just kind of cut him up and stabbed him to death. Now [the balloon] looks like a patched doll.”
The attempted balloon-nappers paid for the balloon, Thomas said. “They were honor students at McLean High School.”
When he heard that Ivy had disappeared, Thomas said, “I wondered if they got wind of what happened to mine.”
Thomas was asked if he ever pulled pranks as a high-school student.
“Back then they didn’t have these things,” he said. “I was no angel, but grand theft was not on my list of things to do after school. My parents made me come home before 11 o’clock,” he said.
“I grew up in Massachusetts. The word ‘bad’ up there is a lot worse than down here,” Thomas said.
He still has several 20-foot tall Frosty the Snowman balloons at Balloons Unlimited. They rent for $1,500 a month.