LEWISTON – Madison and Sydney Roy didn’t get excited when a car pulled into the driveway of their Grove Street home. They barely looked up when there was a knock on the door.

But when they were led outside to greet a group of strangers in the yard, their enthusiasm grew dramatically. There, at the edge of the driveway, was a box. Inside the box was a 6-foot inflatable Grinch to replace one that was stolen from the yard over the weekend.

“It’s our Grinch!” said 3-year-old Sydney.

“Cool!” added Madison, 5.

The reappearance of the Grinch on Grove Street was due to the kindness of Jake McDaniel of Lisbon Falls, a man who had never met the Roy family, but had been moved to action after reading about the theft of an inflatable Grinch from their yard.

“It’s all about them,” McDaniel said, who went to Grove Street with his wife, Tammy, and 2-year-old son, Trevor. “It’s all about the kids.”

Well, not entirely. Sheila and Eric Roy were pretty excited, too.

“I’m in total shock,” Eric said. “It’s amazing.”

“We’re not used to people giving things to us,” Sheila said.

Jake McDaniel would hear none of it. He plugged in the new inflatable Grinch as the children stood around him. They watched the snarling green character rise into the air, pulling a Christmas tree from a chimney as he rose.

“You’re the kind of people who always help others,” he said to the Roy family. “Now it’s your turn to be helped.”

Jake McDaniel has the Christmas spirit. He read about the plight of the Roy family – their decorative Grinch was stolen on Saturday by a bold, daytime thief who cut the strings that tethered it. He was angry and touched when he read about the heartbreak of the Roy girls, who created a handwritten sign pleading for the return of their beloved Grinch.

Mostly, he was motivated. Which is required because finding an inflatable Grinch at this time of year is no easy feat.

“I was on the phone for two hours looking for one,” McDaniel said.

He got a break after talking to a manager at the Rite-Aid in Topsham. That manager did some searching through the computer and discovered one at the drugstore chain’s store in Livermore Falls. McDaniel sent a friend up there to buy the Grinch before someone else did.

“We’ve had a few things taken from our own house,” said Jake’s wife, Tammy. “We know how it feels.”

And so, as it did in “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” kindness trumped cruelty in the end. The Roy family has a new, inflatable icon in the yard and a new set of friends in the McDaniel family.

“There should be more people like them,” Eric Roy said.

By nightfall, the scene at the Roy house was fit for a Hallmark special. The group stood in the yard talking about Christmas while the children ambled among the lights. The Grinch towered over them, and this time, the Roys don’t intend to let it get carried away by thieves.

“I’ll be keeping it right on the stairs this time,” Eric said. “I won’t make the same mistake again.”

Anyone with information regarding the stolen Grinch is asked to call Lewiston police at 784-6422.