Someone’s stealing chairs set out ahead of Fourth of July parade

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    CATONSVILLE, Maryland (WBAL) — Someone is stealing chairs.

Not just any chairs, though.

These chairs are part of a time-honored holiday tradition in Catonsville.

As part of what has become a tradition, residents place chairs alongside Frederick Road to save their place days — sometimes weeks — in advance of the Catonsville Fourth of July parade.

“It’s been a tradition for, gosh, I don’t know, 20, 30 years probably. People claim their real estate, they claim their territory about a month ahead of time,” said Debbie Welsh, owner of Write-On! Inc., a T-shirt and product embroidery store in Catonsville.

“I find it funny, personally,” Crissy Skoglin told 11 News. “I wait every year to see how early it’s going to be that they start showing up. People do it because they want to mark their spot.”

Residents and community members call the parade exciting, and some even hold big parties.

“This is like Christmas Eve for us. It’s just really neat. Everybody comes together,” Welsh told 11 News. “You see people you see once a year, they just come (for) Fourth of July.”

Some chairs even hold mannequins.

“I think they’re hysterically funny,” said Judy Copeland.

Jo-Ellen O’Dell said someone mentioned on Facebook that they had seen some chairs getting stolen.

“There’s nothing that can’t be controversial, I guess, on Facebook, so things kind of blew up from there,” O’Dell said. “Nobody should be stealing chairs. That’s just silly.”

That didn’t leave some in Catonsville sitting comfortably.

“I think that’s sad. I don’t understand why somebody would want to do that,” Skoglin told 11 News. “People may not understand what Catonsville is about, and it is a funny thing, but it doesn’t belong to you, so you shouldn’t steal it.”

“It’s kind of mean, but, you know, do you really have the right to put those chairs there?” said Robin Russell.

“That’s unfortunate. That’s just a buzzkill. That’s a bummer,” Welsh told 11 News. “I hope they get them.”

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