News Bulletin: arsonists win again

Gävle goat is toast

By Will Collette\

Sad news to report: under cover of nighttime darkness around midnight on Wednesday night, arsonists snuck up on the Gävle Christmas goat and burnt it to the ground. Click here for more photos.

As I wrote earlier, the Swedish town of Gävel celebrates the holidays by erecting the forty-foot high goat made of sticks and straws. This is the 46^th year for this display.

Once the goat is erected in the town square, residents then divide into pro-goat and anti-goat factions. The anti-goat faction’s goal is to destroy the goat, while the pro-goaters are its defenders. The firebugs usually win.

Last year’s goat was toast after only a few days on display, torched on December 3, 2011.

This year, by the time the fire company reached the scene, the goat was completely destroyed. Police roped off central Gävle as a crime scene (I’m not making this up). 

"We haven't arrested anyone," said Gävle police duty officer Johan Fredriksson. "Personally, I think this is a shame. It's fun that the goat is so famous but it would also be nice if it could be left alone," he said.

Three to four suspicious individuals were seen on CCTV footage around the goat just before it caught fire.

As I suggested in my earlier article, this would be a great tradition for Charlestown. Thanks to Frank “Frankie Pallets” Glista, we have the annual Charlestown New Year’s Eve bonfire anyway. Let’s get Frank to shape the pallets into a suitable animal effigy, one that captures the true spirit of Charlestown. 

Then, taking full advantage of the natural occurrence that, on any given issue, Charlestown is usually split 50-50, we can have half of Charlestown as the arsonists and the other half as the defenders.

As humor columnist Dave Barry often says, WCPGW (“what could possibly go wrong?”).