Volunteers who work an unpaid second job for nearly three months getting displays up and running for Kingfisher Winter Nights came upon a dismaying scene Saturday morning.

Seven of the lighted metal candy canes lining the drive at the north park entrance had apparently been run over by a vehicle.

Kingfisher Winter Nights volunteers Steve Neuman and Virgil Bonham discovered the vandalism about 10:30 a.m. Saturday and reported the crime to police.

The decorations, valued at $175 each, are provided through donations, like every other display that makes up the popular Christmas event.

Neuman said the incident appeared to be accidental, rather than intentional.

“It looks like they were coming through the park planning to head out of the north gate and didn’t see the black, unlit candy canes,” Neuman told the

Times & Free Press.

“The decent thing would have been to report it, but they didn’t.”

Investigating Offi cer Chod Trout of the Kingfisher Police Department wrote in his report that he photographed what possibly could be a green paint transfer on some of the smashed decorations.

He also photographed tire tread marks on the yellow pipe that serves as a guardrail between the drive and park train tracks at that location.

Neuman pointed out a fresh oil trail that may have been left by the vehicle after it punctured its oil pan on one of the displays.

Trout followed the trail to the south entrance of the park, then west on Bowman Avenue, south on Third Street, where the vehicle appeared to have made a circle through the mobile home park, west on Bowman again to Main Street, north to S.H. 33 and then east until the trail disappeared, according to the report.

Neuman said KWN is in the process of repairing and replacing the damaged displays and has installed additional barriers to keep vehicles out of the park, which is closed to vehicle traffic except for the hours the displays will be open during the holiday season.