Two Cardinals fans burned messages into Donovan McNabb’s lawn before the NFC Championship Game last week and then were bright enough to leave evidence behind, which linked them to the crime.
The Cardinals fans who left diesel fuel messages in the lawn of Donovan McNabb’s Chandler home also left something else – a box with a postage sticker that listed the suspect’s name and address.
The two men, Rex Perkin, 37, and Ryan Hanlon, 28, were arrested Saturday around 6 p.m., for using the fuel to kill the grass in the Philadelphia quarterback’s lawn and leave the messages., “Go Cards,” “Go Kurt,” and “I (heart) AZ.”
But the story actually started two days before, when McNabb came home to his house in the Ocotillo neighborhood on the Thursday to find a Cardinals flag hanging from a tree in his yard. The quarterback found the prank amusing and left the flag hanging in the tree, Favazzo said.
When McNabb came home late the next night, he saw the cardboard box that the vandals made into a makeshift sign – “Go Cards” was written on one side and “Beat Philly” on the other. Again McNabb brushed it off, but when he woke up early the next morning on the day of the game, he smelled diesel fuel and called police.
“Police did a very, very quick investigation,” said Sgt. Joe Favazzo, a Chandler police spokesman. Officers quickly spotted the postage sticker on the box with Perkin’s name and address. They went Perkin’s home, where police arrested him at about 6 p.m. when he admitted to the prank and outted his co-worker, Hanlon. Perkins wore a Cardinals cap in his booking photo.
Go easy on the Cardinal fans – this is the first time they’ve ever had the opportunity to do something like this. They’ll learn.
