An employee at a regional Department of Veterans Affairs office in Philadelphia has stirred up controversy by threatening to throw away a Christmas tree found in the office.
The Washington Examiner reported Rebecca Cellucci, who works at the Intake Processing Center, sent the email Tuesday, which read, "There is a Christmas tree, ornaments, and decorations in the cubicle across from Luis Stevenson's desk (the same cubicle where the scanner is housed). If this belongs to you, please claim it. Otherwise it will be discarded on Friday, 12/2/2016."
The email was labeled "Importance: High."
Officials at the VA told the Examiner that they were not happy about the email, considering issues that the Veterans Affairs department is facing about wait times and veteran suicides.
"With veteran suicides at record highs, is this really the most pressing issue for the management at the Philly VA—one that demands a maximum effort and an all-employee, urgent email… to declare war on Christmas?" one official told the Examiner.
Another official compared the email sender to the Grinch, the Dr. Seuss book and cartoon villain.
"I can understand if it's a couple of weeks after Christmas, but it's a couple of weeks before Christmas," the official told the Examiner. "The Grinch might have stolen everyone's Christmas tree, but he never actually threatened to end its life by a certain date."
A VA employee told The Washington Times that "Either management has a policy against any mention of Christmas or religion, or they are absolutely tone deaf."
The employee told the Times that as of Tuesday afternoon, the tree remained in the cubicle.
“It'll be there till Friday, so there’s a countdown to the execution of the tree," the employee told the Times.
The email's author did not respond to a request for comment, the Examiner reported.