Being an adult typically means that we know that the world can be a harder place than when we were kids – and that can leave life a bit less magical.
So when Christmas rolls around, life can get that spark back when we see the thrill that Santa Claus can bring for children. And the world gets a bit brighter for a time.
One young girl in Rhode Island asked the age-old question all kids do at one point: Does Santa really exist? So she turned to her local police department for help.
Cumberland Police Department Chief Matthew Benson told the Today show that his office received a special letter in the mail when Christmas was over. In it was a letter, alongside a partially-eaten cookie and carrots with bite marks in them.
Ten-year-old Scarlett Doumato wrote to the Cumberland Police Department in Rhode Island, asking them to investigate and find out if Santa was real. Photo by 10 WJAR.
The letter, Benson shared, was from 10-year-old Scarlett Doumato. It read: “Dear Cumberland Police Department [sic], I took a sample of a cookie and carrots that I left for Santa and the raindeer [sic] on Christmas Eve and was wondering if you could take a sample of DNA and see if Santa is real?”
Her mother, Alyson, told 10 WJAR that her daughter is “always a little bit skeptical, and looking for the facts.” The young girl, she said, has her own lab and home detective kit and detective gear.
“I watch crime shows, and I thought it was like cool to be a detective,” Scarlett said.
When the police chief got the letter, he told reporters that the letter meant a lot to him. “For her to take that initiative and to push that forward because she has a question that she wants answered, I just think was amazing,” Benson said.
So the department started its own special investigation, a press release from them said.
Pieces of evidence used by the Cumberland Police Department to determine if Santa was real.
“She did the work — she collected the evidence, she tagged it the right way,” Benson said. “She’s obviously watching the shows very intently. Separate baggies. She did it right by the book, so we’re taking it just as serious as she is.”
The press release said that the investigative department was ‘immediately instructed’ to get the evidence to Rhode Island’s Forensic Sciences Unit.
They also posted an evidence form, showing the cookie and carrots that had been photographed. It also said that the evidence Scarlett submitted should be “examined for bite marks compared with any dental records on file.”
Benson sent the young detective a letter thanking her for her help. In it he added photo evidence of a ‘reindeer’ on someone’s lawn.
He said that the ability to connect with a young girl and keep her curiosity alive was ‘energizing’.
“Anything that we can do to further foster her initiative and drive and her interest in an investigation, and anything we can do to keep that ball rolling, we’re going to do,” Benson said.
“I just hope that it makes everybody think back to when they were a little kid and that wonder and curiosity. Anything we can do to foster that for her and make this really special, I’m willing to.”
So what’s next for the case of Santa and the mysterious DNA? Well, the Rhode Island Department of Health said it was not able “to definitively confirm or refute the presence of Santa.”
But the Cumberland Police Department said that “we all agree that something magical may be at play.”
