Kathy Hyatt, whose annual family “Extreme Christmas” display drew the delight and dismay of her Plantation neighbors for more than a decade, is facing a criminal charge for reporting the theft of a 1973 Corvette that she had actually parked at a friend’s house for safekeeping, according to court records.
Hyatt, 53, has not been jailed on the misdemeanor charge, but she could be sentenced to less than a year in jail if convicted.
Available court records do not list an attorney for her. Reached on her cellphone Tuesday evening, Hyatt said she was unaware of any criminal charge and declined to comment. The address on the official complaint documenting the accusation matches the address of the annual Christmas display.
According to the official complaint, Hyatt asked a friend to store the vehicle in December 2018. Earlier that year, Hyatt’s husband, Mark, filed for divorce, bringing an end to their annual feud with the city over the traffic generated by their holiday display, which was extravagant enough to be featured on ABC network television’s “Great Christmas Light Fight” show.
Hyatt Extreme Christmas featured hundreds of thousands of lights, a live Santa, dance groups, a Ferris wheel that gave stuffed animals an endless ride, and a movie screen that replayed children’s shows, among myriad other attractions.
The Hyatts stood in solidarity when the city unsuccessfully took them to court in a four-day trial in 2016, determined to shut down the display.
Hyatt then won a seat on the City Council in 2016.
Friends close to the couple say their marriage started to sour almost immediately after the election, and Kathy Hyatt was blindsided when her husband told her they would divorce.
The divorce was so ugly over child custody issues that his family didn’t tell her when he died in February.
The police report offers no indication of why Kathy Hyatt reported the car stolen a month after she allegedly had it stored in her friend’s garage, although other records show that Mark Hyatt was seeking alimony from his wife of 27 years. She did not file an insurance claim, according to the report.
Although she said in a 2018 divorce hearing that she had no jewelry to sell, she told police a month later that $76,000 in jewelry was missing from her home the same day she reported the Corvette stolen, according to the report.
Police in Plantation said the friend who was storing the vehicle was unaware that it was reported stolen and reported it as soon as she and her boyfriend became aware of it during Mark Hyatt’s funeral.
