Bonus: Real Life Grinch with Javier Leva of Pretend & Sins and Survivors

Murder, She Told

Kristen Seavey

Society & Culture, Documentary, True Crime

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tis the season for true crime chaos! Hosts Kristen Seavey from Murder, She Told, Javier Leiva from PRETEND, and Shaun from Sins & Survivors join forces to explore Christmas crimes gone horribly wrong. From a bath salts-fueled home decorator in suburban Ohio to a serial burglar stealing Robert De Niro's wrapped presents right from under his tree, these real-life Grinches prove that the holidays bring out the worst in some people. The hosts also dive into the disturbing case of postal workers who intercepted letters to Santa meant for underprivileged children...stealing laptops, iPads, and gift cards intended for kids in need. But the main event is a fresh-off-the-press case from Bangor, Maine. When a couple woke up to find a stranger sleeping on their couch surrounded by their unwrapped Christmas presents. Police body cam footage reveals just how terrifying this "funny" story really was. Follow Pretend and Sins and Survivors wherever you're listening now. Support the show: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.murdershetold.com/support⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@murdershetoldpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@murdershetold⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠/mstpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠murdershetold.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ---- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Shopify. With Shopify, 2026 is the year you make it happen. It gives you the tools to build your dream store, online and in person. Plus with marketing built in, it'll help you reach exactly who you need to. Join the millions who've already made the leap, like Jim Shark and all birds, and ring in the new year with Shopify.
0:23.4	Sign up for your £1 per month trial at Shopify.com.uk.
0:27.9	slash Spotify.
0:30.1	Hey, it's Kristen, and I'm feeling a little bit better, but still not perfectly normal.
0:35.1	But anyway, last week I released a little off-the-cuff bonus episode
0:38.8	with my friends Javier Lava from Pretend and Sean from Sins and Survivors. And we decided to get
0:44.0	together and do another little bonus episode focused on non-violent holiday-related crimes.
0:50.3	We have stories that range from a bath salt-fueled Christmas decorator to somebody stealing Robert De Niro's wrapped Christmas presents from right under his tree, and a fresh off-the-press case from right here in Bangor, Maine.
1:03.8	With that, I hope you have a wonderful holiday week, and enjoy this bonus episode from myself, Javier and Sean.
1:29.1	Hey everyone. it's me.
1:30.9	Javier, Leva, with the pretend podcast.
1:35.8	And I'm joined today by Kristen with the Murder She Told podcast.
1:38.5	And Sean with the Sins and Survivors podcast.
1:39.2	What?
1:40.4	Are we doing this again?
1:41.6	We are doing this again.
1:47.0	We got such great feedback from our last episode that we figured,
1:52.7	hey, why not? Let's do this again, right? But this time it's Christmas and we should do a Christmas episode, right? Yes. So today we are going to talk about real life Grinches. Okay, these are
1:59.8	stories of Christmas gone wrong.
2:03.5	And boy, do we have a doozy?
2:05.7	Kristen, kind of give us a preview of the main story that we're going to talk about,
2:11.5	which is just wild.
	...

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