Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe GAVLE, Sweden, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Officials in a Swedish city said arsonists carried on an illegal tradition by setting the city's straw Christmas goat on fire. Police in Gavle said they received a report that the 42-foot-tall goat was in flames at about 3 a.m. Wednesday, the Swedish news agency TT reported Wednesday. Advertisement "It was more or less just a skeleton by the time we got there," Gavle police Cmdr. Goran Lyrberg said. Officials said the goat, which has been a tradition in the city for 43 years, is set on fire or otherwise vandalized nearly every year. Last year's goat was destroyed by flames Dec. 27. Police said they are investigating the matter as serious vandalism.
