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Police: Decorations lead to pranks

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Some Tempe residents already put up their lights and decorations and hope not to be victims of theft or tampering.(Scott Stuk | The State Press)

The holiday season always appears to be mating season for lighted deer, at least with the help of local adolescents.

Yard decorations have slowly become more elaborate, allowing creative youth to find a more interesting way to spend their time.

Exercise and wellness senior Chelsi Mundy said pranks with decorations were a big part of the winter during her senior year of high school.

“It was that borderline, could-be-illegal factor,” she said. “We never destroyed anything, just spicing things up.”

In an elaborate scheme, Mundy said a friend of hers filled her truck with confetti and decorations from the neighborhood.

“He put it in the vents so when I turned on the heater it all blew out,” she said.

Then came the lighted deer.

The popular lighted fixtures during the holiday season are prime targets for pranksters in what Mundy called a drive-by prank.

“We stole the lighted reindeer and then rearranged them in people’s yards like they were mating,” she said.

Former ASU journalism student Austin Clayton called the sexual positioning of the deer a “classic.”

Clayton said he started pranking houses at age 11 by unplugging lights and deflating blow-up decorations.

He had a run-in with the police while carrying out a holiday light prank with 14 other people when he was senior in high school, he said.

Clayton received a call from a friend that was running from the house, and while trying to pick the friend up, police found him.

“Before I knew it five cops were behind me pulling me over,” he said.

The incident ended with the friends grouped together on the sidewalk and a call to his parents.

He never intended to cause any harm and the holiday pranks have slowed down since college, Clayton said.

“We try not to vandalize people’s stuff,” he said.

Sgt. Ed Wessing with the Mesa Police Department said police get calls about these “pranks” every year.

Stepping onto someone’s property without his or her permission is considered trespassing, and if anything is stolen it can be burglary, Wessing said.

“It depends on what they did and what the home owner wants to do,” he said.

Homeowners have the choice to prosecute those caught vandalizing decorations.

Wessing said some neighborhoods even have a block watch at night to prevent the pranks or theft.

“It’s not a prank, it’s a crime,” he said.

Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu.


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