Cops put 2 on ice after Frosty stabbing

Mon Dec 18, 11:38 PM ET

CINCINNATI (AP) - Two Christmas grinches were arrested Monday, accused of stabbing a 12-foot-tall inflatable Frosty the snowman with a screwdriver. The Hamilton County Sheriff's office said two 18-year-olds were charged with criminal damaging, and the investigation continues to snowball.

The assault on Frosty was caught on tape when homeowner Matt Williquette set up a motion-sensitive video camera in a tree in his yard because the snowman had fallen victim to two earlier attacks.

The inflatable, the biggest figure in his Christmas display in suburban Colerain Township, was punctured with a screwdriver Sunday night, for the third time.

Williquette had used white masking tape to patch over Frosty the first two times.

"The question I have is, 'Why me?' And why Frosty?" Williquette asked. "I had more (decorations) to put out there but with Frosty going down, I wasn't going to chance it."

Police said they arrested one young man at his Colerain Township home and the second turned himself in.

At one point Monday, the sheriff's office, which investigated with the Colerain Township police department, said in a statement: "The investigation continues to snowball."

In a separate act of holiday vandalism, a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were charged Monday with criminal damaging. Authorities accused the two of taking a decorative candy cane from another Colerain Township yard early Saturday morning and smashing it on the owner's vehicle, causing $1,000 in damage.