HOUSTON, Texas — It’s the start of December, time for Santa's elves to arrive at your home to start their watch before Christmas.
But this year, dozens of parents across the Houston area are ready to put some people on the naughty list, after they say they were scammed after buying "Elf on the Shelf" survival kits.
And now, police cases are popping up all across the Houston area.
Jingles and Elfie made their Christmas debut at the Kaplan house early Wednesday morning.
“They are here so they can watch and report back to Santa, and make sure the kids are behaving themselves,” Rosie Kaplan said.
Mom, Rosie, had ordered a kit on Facebook for the elves, to get here before they arrived.
“I gave her a deposit. Each kit was $50 so I gave her a $25 deposit for each kit,” Kaplan said.
She paid for them, and was even messaging the seller back and forth.
“It was just very real, and you wouldn’t think that people are scamming on mom groups, I don’t know. It definitely changed my mind,” Kaplan said.
But that kit never came. And that seller, Rosie says, is also M.I.A. She says her Facebook was deleted.
“I have no idea why she thought she would get away with this,” Kaplan said.
Since then, Rosie found out she’s not alone.
“And they started saying Pearland and the Woodlands, and I was like, are you kidding me, this is insane,” Kaplan said.
Elyssa Anderson from Seabrook also bought a kit for her elves.
“And some people paid in full like I did, up front. Doing the math, I’m like holy cow we’re talking about like $14,000 here, this is insane,” Anderson said.
But she says, that kit is still missing along with many others.
“And somebody said ‘hey, we have a group, of everybody that’s been a victim of her and her husband. Here’s the group, join it.’ So I joined it. Yesterday, it was like 70 of us. The last time I checked, it was 278 people on this group page,” Anderson said.
The Pearland Police Department is one of several agencies now investigating.
“Not confirmed, but if you believe the social media posts, there’s potentially hundreds of victims of this scam,” Pearland Police Officer Chad Rogers said.
Some moms on Facebook have said the seller reached out offering a refund, but other moms say they’ve heard nothing.
“You don’t just disappear off Facebook and pretend like it’s not happening,” Kaplan said.
If this happened to you, police are urging you to file a report so they can try to get an idea of just how many victims there may be.
KHOU 11 News has tried reaching out to the accused seller, but we have not yet received a response.