Cemetery flag vandal turns out to be groundhog

LOCKPORT, N.Y. — A sheriff’s deputy investigating reports of vandalized flags at an upstate New York cemetery has caught the culprit in the act.

It was a groundhog.

Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour says he sent a deputy to the veterans’ section of Cold Springs Cemetery in Lockport after the parents of an Army specialist buried there called reporters earlier this week to complain about the damaged flags.

Groundskeeper Rodney Burdick says about 31 flags were missing from veterans’ graves.

Voutour says he wouldn’t have believed the groundhog was responsible if his deputy hadn’t watched the animal take the flags, break them with its front paws and take them into its den.