LEWISTON – The first to go was a polar bear, a foot-and-a-half feet tall and made of glass. It disappeared from a front yard on Fortin Way and hasn’t been seen since.

Next, it was Mickey Mouse. Tall and inflatable, the festive rodent was swiped from a yard on Morse Avenue sometime Saturday night.

An illuminated Christmas train went off the track outside a Pond Road home, stolen either later Friday or early Saturday.

Around the same time, a red and white barn-shaped mailbox was stolen from 57 Rachel Boulevard while a 3-foot tall, lighted snowman in the yard was left alone. Other mailboxes were stolen from the same neighborhood.

On Haley Street, it was not one particular holiday figure that struck the fancy of thieves but a whole collection of them. A family there reported that all of their lawn decorations were stolen between Friday and Saturday.

For police, it is troublesome. The theft of Christmas decorations is the same by law as shoplifting from a store. But the personal impact tends to be greater.

“It’s sentimentally different,” said Lewiston police Sgt. David Chick.

Chick spent several years as a detective tracking down people who commit home burglaries. He cracked many cases and put many suspects behind bars.

Though both break-ins and the thefts of lawn ornaments leave a sense of personal invasion, there are not a lot of similarities. Chick said burglars who break into homes tend to scout out the location first, planning meticulously their entry and exit.

Not so much with ornament swiping.

“These are more crimes of opportunity,” Chick said. “Someone is driving around and sees something he wants. I think a lot of these thefts are happening while the victims are still at home.”

For investigators, hunting for stolen Christmas display items can be daunting. When a blow-up Santa is taken from a yard, police have to contend with the notion that hundreds or more of the same item might be scattered across the city.

“These are things that are mass produced,” Chick said. “It’s very hard for us to identify one that has been stolen, unless there is some kind of specific mark placed on it by the homeowner.”

Which may not be a bad idea. Chick said people who set out grand displays in their yard should consider making a bold, personal mark on the items that might draw the attention of thieves.

Such markings could provide police with leads or even enough evidence to charge a culprit if one is found with the holiday goods.

Such a tactic may not help, however, with holiday vandalism.

A case was reported on Homefield Street Friday after two inflatable Christmas decorations were punctured and thrown into the road.