(Reuters) - Police in suburban Nashville are looking for a Scrooge who sawed off a live Christmas tree loaded with decorations in a suspected holiday season theft.

All that was left of the 10-foot tree was a tiny stump and a lot of questions as to who made off with heavily adorned tree from the front yard of Karen Wilkes, who told reporters it cost her $600 to have the tree planted about a month ago.

Nothing else was taken from the yard, police said.

"The other trees weren't decorated," said Major Don Linzy, chief of detectives for the Sumner County Sheriff's Department, adding this was one of the most unusual Christmas-time crimes he has seen in his 30-year career.

(Corrects name spelling in reporting credit signoff)

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Eric Walsh)