Letter: 'Stolen' Uggs Actually Part of Manicure Mix-Up

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted to Patch in response to the February 14 Patch article "Thief Snags Designer Boots While Mahwah Girl Gets Pedicure in Wyckoff, Cops Say." Submit letters to the editor to jessica.mazzola@patch.com. 

To the Editor:

“A funny thing happened on the way to the movies”

A few weeks ago the Patch ran a story about a pair Uggs being stolen while a girl was getting a pedicure at a local Wyckoff Nail Salon. Turns out the Uggs were not stolen but inadvertently picked up by one on three young girls in a hurry to catch a movie. The so-called Uggs “snatcher” in the group happened to be my 13 year old daughter thinking the boots belonged to one of her friends who also just had a pedicure.

The young lady from Mahwah “whose boots went walking” had left them under the same table occupied by the three girls while she was in the back of the [salon] getting a pedicure. When she finished the pedicure, the three girls and her boots were on their way to the movies. 

Now it starts to get interesting: It is February 5th and like a lot of other days this winter it snowed. The Mahwah girl has now has lost her Uggs and has to leave barefooted. Her mother rightly becomes agitated that someone stole her daughter’s boots and reports it, more out of principle, to the Wyckoff police. 

Security cameras reveal three girls leaving [the salon] about the same time with their belongings. One of the three is barefoot also having just had a pedicure. They get in the car of a parent and drive away.

Detective Musto recognizes my daughter, a classmate of his son, and one of the other Eisenhower students from the security recordings. He calls me and we get to the bottom of this “caper.”

Turns out the extra pair of Uggs were left in the back of parent’s car that night after the girls are dropped off at the movies. The next morning the mother could not figure out whose boots they belonged to. The boots traveled to 3 different houses in an attempt by the mother to find the owner. But to no avail…

When word got out about the boots the mother then called Detective Musto and dropped the boots off at the Wyckoff Police Department.

Credit goes to Detectives Mike Musto and Joe Soto for their investigating, what on the surface seems like a trivial matter, but smacked of cruelty that anyone would dare “steal” a girl’s boots on a snowy day. 

I am happy to report the Uggs were reunited with the owner after a 4-week vacation and just in time for yet another snow storm. 

Jerry Ghinelli

Wyckoff, NJ