SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Grinch - in the form of several teenagers - dropped by a home in Yellowknife Friday night, and uprooted a candy cane display before being chased off by the owner.

Debby and Peter Rybchinski stand outside their Rivett Crescent home, where teenage vandals attacked their Christmas display last Friday night. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

Peter Rybchinski said he noticed something amiss outside his residence around 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11. He rushed out in time to see someone ripping out metre-high decorative candy canes in his front yard.

A car full of people took off, and Rybchinski followed in his own vehicle, pausing to call the police. RCMP officers apprehended the car full of teenagers a few blocks away.

An officer made one of the five teens apologize to Rybchinski.

"I asked him why he would do something like this and he said he'd had a bad Christmas experience," said Rybchinski. "He apologized and looked sincere."

Two of the light-up ornaments were destroyed and the string of five no longer works. Rybchinski said the decorations were frozen into a snowbank with ice and they didn't uproot easily. He said he luckily found three replacements, but that didn't take the sting out of the incident.

"It was a little upsetting. It's a violation," Rybchinski said, adding that he worried other people in the neighbourhood may also have been targeted.

"It could have been a dare. Teenagers are teenagers," said Debby Rybchinski, Peter's wife. "But it's Yellowknife, you can't just run to replace these things – the stores, they're picked over."

Peter said he creates the display every year for kids in the neighbourhood. He and Debby started putting up the decorations in November and have spent 40 hours building an inukshuk, stringing up lights, and creating a festive yard. The couple said even an act of vandalism hasn't deterred them from continuing to light up their lawn.

Rybchinski said he hopes people think twice before interfering with holiday displays. He worries teenagers are becoming bolder and have little respect.

"I was a kid once too, I did stupid things too. I had to answer to my father though," he said. "I just hope these kids realize the hurt they can cause."

The RCMP did not return calls as to whether or not any of the teenagers were charged.