Torching the goat

Every year the merchants in the town of Gavle, Sweden erect a giant straw goat for Christmas. The goat has been burned to the ground by vandals 22 times since 1966. The vandals are rarely caught.

"In just a couple of minutes only a sooty wooden skeleton remained," she said. There were no immediate suspects, but Olander said that one of two men seen running from the scene was wearing a Father Christmas mask.

Since 1966, just 10 of the 43-foot-high goats have survived beyond Christmas Day. Most were burned - sometimes within hours of being built during the first week of December. The 1976 goat was hit by a car, while in 1997, it was damaged by fireworks.

The vandals are seldom caught, but in 2001, the goat was set on fire on Dec. 23 by a 51-year-old visitor from Cleveland, Ohio. The culprit, Lawrence Jones, was convicted and spent 18 days in jail.

Has anyone in Sweden heard of hiring security guards? How about video surveillance cameras? How about, instead of straw using some sort of non-flammable material? And then when they do catch someone, they only give him 18 days?