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Squirrel Steals Yellow Ribbons From Tree

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

BETTENDORF, Iowa - A couple has finally discovered what was happening to the yellow ribbons they were tying to the trees in their yard in support of their son and other troops in Iraq.

"The ribbons started to disappear. Every time it disappeared, I would hang a new one," said Bob Saskowski, who tied the ribbons with his wife, Alexis.

It went on for eight months. The last straw was when three ribbons disappeared in three days.

So Bob Saskowski appealed to his neighbors through a memo, asking them to talk to their teenagers about respect and patriotism and asked for their help.

"It indicated I needed their eyes to help them watch the trees," he said.

Neighbors responded by adding yellow ribbons to the trees in their yards.

"My husband and I were ticked," said neighbor Patty Kenyon. "And we all decided if this person was going to pick on Bob, they can pick on all of us. And we literally put ribbons up and down the street."

The ribbons kept disappearing, but only from the Saskowski yard.

"We thought someone had a vengeance against us, personally, because no one else's ribbons in the neighborhood was disappearing," Saskowski said.

Finally, the couple set up a video camera, focused on the yard. Six weeks later, they caught the culprit on tape. The ribbon was being shimmied slowly down the trunk.

At the base, the squirrel pushing the ribbon, bit through the ribbon and took off with it.

"We can laugh now," Saskowski said. "Before, it was not funny."

He says the squirrel was actually a good thing.

"And I named him Patriot because he brought our neighborhood together," Saskowski said.

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