It turns out that building a snowman around a tree trunk is a surprisingly effective way to teach vandals a hard lesson. A TikToker known as fiuot01 shared a video that has racked up 1.8 million views. He explains that his method for dealing with people who find it fun to destroy children’s snowmen is simple, yet incredibly effective: a tree. In the TikTok video, fiuot01 explains, “Hi everyone, so I purposely make snowmen around tree trunks so that guys who think it’s funny to run over kids’ snowmen totally totaled their cars. So I started doing this a couple years ago because one of my little brothers made a snowman, and some guy thought it was funny to run it over. So, I built the snowman around a tree trunk; it worked, the guy came back, thought it’d be fine to run it over again, and totaled his car. So now I do it every year.” The results of this strategy are apparently quite consistent. He claims to have reached a high score of 20 cars so far this year. He even mentioned, “I’m thinking about trying to expand, trying to convince maybe neighbors and other people to let me build snowmen around their tree trunks and hopefully total more cars.” He frames it as his civic duty Fiuot01 notes, “I don’t do this for fun, I just do it because I think it’s important to teach people to respect children and respect their work and their artwork, because I think snowmen are kind of like that. And it is kind of funny to see them total the cars in their reaction,” he says. The internet has had a field day with this story. Amina summed up the general sentiment of many viewers by writing, “I finally understand chaotic good.” Other users like Moth on the Spectrum and Sarah noted similar things, referring to the TikToker as chaotic good. @fiuot01 #snowman #fyp #storytime ♬ original sound – fiuot01 Some users were more focused on the practical implications. BluefootedB suggested, “I love this. But if someone gets seriously hurt and you say this on TikTok, they might sue you. So maybe check with a lawyer…” Others were more amused by the concept, with h148 commenting, “This makes me so angry because i didn’t think of it first!!!” The phenomenon of snowman vandalism is nothing new. Back in 2019, a couple in Petersburg, Kentucky, experienced something very similar. According to CBS News, Cody Lutz and his fiancée built a massive 10-foot snowman using a tree stump as a base. When they returned home, they found tire tracks leading directly to the snowman, where the would-be vandals had failed to destroy the structure because of the hidden stump. Lutz described the scene, noting, “The massive stump is now exposed, with a snowy imprint of a bumper stuck to it!” He referred to the incident as “Instant Karma!” and joked that the snowman was “handing out life lessons to some very-surprised 4×4 vandals.” View this post on Instagram Of course, not every story of snowman destruction ends with the vandals getting their comeuppance. In a 2023 report from Valley News Live, a six-year-old girl named Alena Kautz in Fargo, North Dakota, was devastated when a group of kids trespassed on her property to destroy her snowman, named Snowy. The family caught the act on their home security camera. Her mother, Amber Kautz, expressed her frustration, noting that children seem to get away with more things these days. View this post on Instagram The reactions to the TikTok video also highlighted that some people haven’t seen this form of vandalism before, as Erika with a K !Comms Open! questioned, “I’m still so confused on where tf there would be tree trunks where cars could reach them?? Are people driving onto lawns? Are there trees in roads??” To be fair to Erika, recently, a call for home vandalism resulted in the police discovering that a 58-year-old woman was allegedly kept prisoner. Other commenters saw Fiuot01’s actions as deeply satisfying. Much like the reaction to someone ‘vandalizing’ a Lamborghini that was parked in a handicapped space. As She.Reclaims put it, “Not all heros wear capes. Some build snowmen.”