By Graeme Strachan

A Dundee businessman last night played Santa to a nine-year-old girl whose Christmas presents were stolen.

Heartbroken Jennifer Keenan appealed for the return of her grandchildren’s presents in Monday’s Courier after thieves grabbed the gifts—including a gold-dust Nintendo Wii games console—from under the Christmas tree.

Jennifer (50) and husband Ralph (51) awoke on Sunday to find their Ardler home, which they share with nine-year-old grand-daughter Brogan, had been broken into.

Thieves had rifled through their belongings but targeted the children’s presents, wrapped in Christmas paper with gift tags clearly showing they were from granny and grandad.

The couple took the opportunity of Brogan being away for the night to wrap the gifts—a Wii and digital camera for the computer games fan.

There was also a large box of Transformers for grandson David (4) plus other presents for the pair. Jennifer and Ralph had been saving for months to buy the presents, purchased only hours earlier.

After reading Monday’s Courier and being touched by the story, Nick Findlater, owner of Disk Depot in the city’s Union Street, got in touch with us and offered to donate a Nintendo Wii to Brogan.

Beaming Brogan last night said she couldn’t thank Nick enough for stepping in to save the day.

Grandmother Jennifer said, “I’m quite humbled that someone would do that. Brogan loves computer games and she really wanted a Nintendo Wii.

“We just wanted to give the children a good Christmas. We could have replaced the smaller presents that were taken, but I really couldn’t afford to go out and get another Nintendo Wii.

“It’s such a kind gesture and I’m welling up because everyone’s been so kind.”

“I didn’t want Brogan’s Christmas to be ruined,” said Mr Findlater.

“The Nintendo Wii consoles are very difficult to get. You’d be hard pushed to get one before Christmas.

“Luckily I had a brand new Nintendo Wii to donate. They are selling on eBay for anything up to £340. Shops such as Game and Gamestation have a waiting list of over 500 people.

“Stores that do have stock are only selling them as part of a bundle deal where you can get the console with a few games for £300. This is probably the reason the console was stolen.

“Either someone wanted it so much for their child or realised they’d get over £300 for it on eBay.”

Brogan, a pupil at St Fergus Primary, thanked Mr Findlater for the kind gesture.

“It was a really nice thing to do,” she said.

“I was upset when my presents were taken but now I can’t wait to wake up on Christmas Day.”

The gifts were worth several hundred pounds, and anyone who saw any person acting suspiciously in the Scotscraig Crescent area overnight on Saturday is asked to contact the police.