In the real world, the Grinch doesn't get to carve the roast beast - he goes to jail

A Hyde Park man got 18 months in jail for stealing a box containing Transformers meant as a Christmas present for a young boy in Jamaica Plain last year, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

A West Roxbury District Court jury on Tuesday found Ernest Polite, 40, guilty of trespassing and receiving stolen property for the incident, in which a parcel with $50 worth of the action figures was swiped off a Bourne Street residence around 8 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2011. Judge Mary Ann Driscoll then sentenced Polite, who has a record of drug trafficking, to 18 months in county jail, during which perhaps his heart can grow three sizes.

The boy, just 4, got his toys in time for Christmas - but that was thanks to a sharp-eyed Boston cop who spotted the parcel in some nearby bushes, not because of Polite, who crupt up a chimney with care or something, before getting into a car with a tiny dog named Max a woman wearing a Santa hat, the DA's office says. Police on patrol spotted the heavyset man who matched the description from witnesses and swooped in for the arrest. In a statement, DA Dan Conley says:

Every parent knows that a box of toys is worth much more to a child than the dollar amount on the price tag. The plan to steal them on Christmas Eve was just heartless. Fortunately, we’ve got a city full of elves and others who wouldn't stand for it.