Caught on camera: Christmas vandal slashes blow-up ornaments, beheads reindeer

   Video courtesy of Brent Martin, St. George News 

 

WASHINGTON CITY —  After half the blow-up Christmas decorations in the front yard of his Washington City home wouldn’t inflate Sunday morning, Brent Martin noticed obvious slits in one of the snowmen and immediately went to his surveillance cameras. At approximately 12:30 a.m., Sunday, his cameras caught a person pull up in a white passenger car, hop out and slash his decorations.

Besides six of Martin’s blow-up ornaments — five snowmen and a 12-foot Santa Claus — he found out that two of his neighbors also had decorations that had been destroyed the same night. One of his neighbors had more inflatable ornaments slashed, and another had a reindeer’s head broken off and some large snowflakes shattered.

One of the slashed inflatable yard decorations pictured here after it was repaired, Washington City, Utah, Dec. 22, 2013 | Photo by Brent Martin, St. George News
One of the slashed inflatable yard decorations pictured here after it was repaired, Washington City, Utah, Dec. 22, 2013 | Photo by Brent Martin, St. George News

Because of the poor quality of the surveillance video, Martin has been unable to report a detailed description of the suspect. However, Martin has notified the Washington City Police, and requested that if anyone recognizes either the people or the car in the video, please contact the police directly.

The police have opened up a file regarding this incident and sent out additional officers on patrol Sunday and Monday in that area, Martin said.

All of the property damage occurred near the intersection of Washington Dam Road and Washington Fields Road in an area of Washington City known as Washington Fields.

Despite the damage, he didn’t want this incident to bring everyone’s Christmas spirit down, Martin said. He repaired the inflatable decorations and had them back up the next day.

“I don’t want to be a downer … I just wanted to fix them to say Merry Christmas,” Martin said.

The Washington City Police non-emergency number is 435-634-5730.

One of the slashed inflatable yard decorations pictured here after it was repaired, Washington City, Utah, Dec. 22, 2013 | Photo by Brent Martin, St. George News
One of the slashed inflatable yard decorations pictured here after it was repaired, Washington City, Utah, Dec. 22, 2013 | Photo by Brent Martin, St. George News

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.

Some of the slashed inflatable yard decorations pictured here after the were repaired, Washington City, Utah, Dec. 22, 2013 | Photo by Brent Martin, St. George News
Some of the slashed inflatable yard decorations pictured here after the were repaired, Washington City, Utah, Dec. 22, 2013 | Photo by Brent Martin, St. George News

 

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8 Comments

  • Real Life December 23, 2013 at 10:19 pm

    5 bucks says they catch the little butt-heads that did this via the video footage, or the fact that the little dummies will brag about it to the wrong person.

  • bUB December 23, 2013 at 10:58 pm

    on a positive note: at least they aren’t out smashing grave stones…

  • Tyler December 23, 2013 at 11:55 pm

    Lmao, what a loser, who does that sh*t by themselves? I at least would have my group of friends back in my days of this fun!

  • 3am mave shopper December 24, 2013 at 1:08 am

    Amen, those idiots will be bragging and your so right that will be the thing to get em caught.

  • Loonie alert December 24, 2013 at 6:23 am

    Hope they catch the creeps. On another note, I’ve never seen a surveillance camera follow the subject and zoom in and out like that before. Looked handheld instead. (?)

    • Craig December 24, 2013 at 8:06 am

      My thoughts exactly.

    • Brent December 24, 2013 at 11:00 am

      I recorded the video footage from a DVR with my iPhone.

  • Betty December 24, 2013 at 8:54 am

    The most disturbing part of that video is the commercial for Family Pawn. Using your children is only “cute” to those who know or are related. On the other hand, I was in there recently when the owner came soooo close to kicking the a@@ of a guy who didn’t park his truck to the owners liking. Maybe that’s why he uses the kids to lure you in. Hopefully the Family Pawn owner will recognize the vandal as one of his customers and proceed to kick his a@@.

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