STROUDSBURG -- Police say it was a brazen act of vandalism, all caught on camera.
A man can be seen on surveillance video knocking an ice sculpture to the ground during Stroudsburg's Winterfest celebration.
The surveillance video was taken around 7:40 p.m. Saturday shows a group of people walking by an ice sculpture placed in front of Dreher Insurance in Stroudsburg. One man stops, touches the display, then yanks it to the ground where it shatters.
Insurance agent Ted Butz says his company bought that ice sculpture for this past Saturday's Winterfest. Businesses along Main Street paid for roughly 30 ice sculptures to be featured in the festivities.
Those ice sculptures cost $260 each.
“A lot of the business owners they put a lot of money into it and thought to bring people downtown and then to have this happen, it`s not nice,” said Butz.
Stroud Area Regional Police said they received no reports of ice sculptures being vandalized but have seen that video, which Dreher Insurance posted to its Facebook page.
They are now investigating, calling it criminal mischief. They plan to check their own cameras on Main Street as well.
Stroudsburg Mayor Tarah Probst says the video is infuriating.
“What really bothers me, why people want to destroy property, what sense does that make?” said Probst. “And somebody could have gotten hurt, first and foremost, and secondly, it's vandalism and they will find him.”
Others in the borough who watched it say they were just as disgusted.
“Well he certainly doesn't have any value for other people's property and that's unfortunate, so let's hope we can help learn that,” said Bill Watkins.
“Seeing the ice sculptures, I said to my friends, I was like, 'Wow, that's insane,' probably took them hours, and now it's ruined. That's horrible,” said Kristine Cappallo.
One of the organizers of Winterfest said he hadn't heard of any other ice sculptures being vandalized, saying many of them had melted by the end of the day.
However, businesses on Main Street in Stroudsburg are being asked to check their surveillance cameras as well.