Suburbanite Shows His Quality, Holiday Spirit

By Alicia Dorr in News on Dec 3, 2007 7:46PM

Not a joke: A Hoffman Estates man was actually dragged by a car while defending his Christmas lawn decorations from vandals.

Phillip OBrill proved he really isn't messing around when it comes to the award-winning holiday lights display on his lawn. He and his wife discovered up to eight diabolical vandals "stomping, ripping and breaking" his holiday decorations to pieces the other night. He stood in front of one of the vehicles as the hoodlums tried flee the scene, thinking that they would stop. The offenders must have been hopped up on PCP or those date-rape toys or something, though, because they ran the homeowner down. He got caught in the windshield wiper and was actually dragged down the street; at one point his foot was even run over.

He ended up spending a little time in the hospital to have his foot mended, but OBrill says there's nothing the ne'er-do-well imps could have done to dampen his Christmas spirit. He said the cost of the damage was around $1,000, but his friends and neighbors are going to help him restore the lawn to its former glory. While his warm holiday feelings remain as strong as ever, he still said he was surprised by the attack, explaining:

"You always have problems with them putting the animals in compromising positions and stuff like that, but I've never had damage like this."

We are inspired by OBrill's Christmas spirit, and the Whoville mentality of his neighbors. Hopefully the culprits will think about all the damage they've caused and their hearts will grow ten sizes.

Example of lawn decorations via planetchristmas.com.