An act of vandalism left a New Harbor couple and their Huddle Road neighborhood reeling Jan. 15.
During the Jan. 12 snowstorm, Pete Cross and Michele Chase built an ambitious snow sculpture. According to Cross, the snow duck measured about 5-6 feet in height and six feet in length.
For two days and a total of over three hours, Cross and Chase sculpted, using turmeric and olive oil to dye the duck’s feathers yellow, Ziploc lids for its eyes and Kool-Aid for a red tongue. Cross credited Chase, his girlfriend, with the concept. “She’s very creative,” he said.
The duck’s happy supervision of Cross’ yard, however, was short-lived. Sometime between 11 p.m. the night of Fri., Jan. 14 and 4:30 a.m. Sat., Jan. 15 morning, a marauder or marauders decapitated the duck.
Cross described himself as “quite shocked” and “dismayed” upon discovering the carnage. The perpetrator(s) had carelessly strewn bits of the duck’s beak and one of its eyes in the road. “I was very sad,” Cross said.
Lending the crime a cinematic twist, the murderers left a ransom note “stuck in his chest with a stick,” Cross said.
The ransom note repeatedly refers to Cross as “Fudgey Pete” and, in threatening language, demands a ransom of $1000 to be paid Thurs., Jan. 20 at the Bristol Area Library.
“If you ever want to see your feathered friends pretty little Beek [sic] again you better Pay up,” the head-napper(s) wrote.
Cross, a cashier at C.E. Reilly & Son in New Harbor, said he’s never heard the “Fudgey Pete” moniker before.
“I have no idea who did it,” Cross said. He said he’s not “aware” of any enemies, either of himself or of the duck. “I think alcohol might turn out to be the enemy.”
Cross will not pay the ransom, he said, citing financial constraints. He is, however, debating an appearance Thursday. He’s not concerned about the criminal(s) turning to violence if he shows up empty-handed, but Chase is, he said.
“I doubt anyone will seriously expect $1000 for a snowball,” Cross said. “I doubt anybody will actually show up to collect $1000.”
The effect of the decapitation on the neighborhood concerns Cross, however. A school bus passes his house – and the gruesome spectacle in his yard – every day and a neighbor sees the sculpture each time she leaves her driveway across the street.
“A lot of people are very upset about it,” Cross said. “It seemed to make everybody happy in the town. People were bringing their friends by to see it.”
The duck-killers obviously committed the deed after much forethought and planning, Cross said. “The note was in a plastic bag. They brought tools because it was one clean cut.”
Cross reported the incident to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and suggested a probable source of evidence. “Their coats and gloves are probably stained” from the turmeric, he said. The investigating officer, Deputy Brian Collamore, did not return a message left Jan. 17.
“I think it was just somebody that was having fun on a Friday night,” Cross said, but the practical joke, if that’s what it was, is lost on him. “There’s just nothing funny about it.”
