A squirrel has been vandalizing Christmas lights in a small town in New Jersey

You’ve heard of the Grinch, but there’s a new figure in town that wants to threaten your holiday — and this one’s actually kind of cute. A New Jersey squirrel has been vandalizing Christmas decorations, and nearly caused the town of Sea Girt their annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

After witnessing the vandalism — in which multiple Christmas light wires were severed — a lot of residents put the blame on rambunctious children, especially because the ceremony is an honored town tradition. Luckily, the damaged wires were found and replaced in time for the big event. But the criminal was caught in the act yet again that Saturday, bringing a sense of relief to police officials. After all, children know better. A squirrel? Well, not so much.

On Thursday, Sea Girt police Captain Justin Macko was interviewed about the damage. At the time, he believed that there was a motive behind it — especially since multiple wires were cut. “There’s several cuts throughout everything if we lay them all out,” he said to NBC 4 New York. “It tells me they definitely wanted to do it and they want to accomplish their goal of making sure the lights don’t work.”

The police officers cleared everything up on Facebook, and noted that the squirrel had been “charged”.

"We are happy that no human acted as a grinch in this incident," they wrote. "The squirrel was 'charged' with criminal mischief and released on bail."

Hopefully the squirrel learned a big lesson — nobody messes with the Sea Girt tree lighting ceremony and gets away with it.