Officials Try to Get to the Root of the Great Pumpkin Caper : Calabasas: Vandals’ attacks on the giant orange balloon baffle festival organizers and city officials.

Someone in Calabasas wants to squash the Great Pumpkin.

That’s the conclusion of organizers of the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival after the Great Pumpkin--a 12-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide orange balloon with a smiling face--was found slashed and deflated Sunday morning for the second time this weekend.

“I don’t know why anybody would want to damage that pumpkin,” said Alan Ungar, vice president of the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce, which co-sponsors the recently resurrected festival. “It’s really an awful thing to do.”

The crime is considered a stain on civic pride in this city that takes its name from calabaza --the Spanish word for pumpkin.

The Great Pumpkin, a namesake of the mythic pumpkin made famous in the “Peanuts” cartoon strip, had been perched on a hillside where it was seen smiling down on motorists on the Ventura Freeway. The balloon sat next to a sign touting the festival, which runs from Oct. 23 to 25 and includes a gourmet pumpkin cookout and a pumpkin weigh-in contest.

The Calabasas Pumpkin Festival had been an annual event for years but the tradition lapsed until it was resurrected this fall. Proceeds from the festival will go to charities in the Calabasas and Agoura Hills area.

“At night it was all lit up--it was a beautiful pumpkin,” Ungar said. “It was a very friendly pumpkin.”

After a tipster called him Sunday morning to say that the pumpkin appeared deflated, Jeff Blum climbed to the top of the hill and found the pumpkin had its skin and air tubes repeatedly slashed. Nearby he found footprints and several beer bottles--apparently left by the assailants.

“They slashed the umbilical cord of the balloon,” Ungar said. “You could tell it was on purpose. They unplugged the compressor before they slashed it. They also cut the ropes that held it in place.”

On Saturday, Ungar and Blum found the compressor that keeps it inflated overturned and damaged. After two attacks in two days, they’re convinced a conspiracy is afoot.

“I think it’s the same people--we found two bottles of beer left there each time,” Ungar said.

The crime had not been reported to authorities as of Sunday afternoon but “we’re very upset about this,” Ungar said. “It’s a senseless crime. It’s very important to us, but in the scheme of things, well, it’s not as though anyone was hurt.”

When told of the incident, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department expressed concern about the Great Pumpkin Caper.

“I think the Great Pumpkin will be highly upset by this sacrilegious act,” said Kari Sobisky, a dispatcher at the Agoura Hills Sheriff’s Station. “I haven’t had any other pumpkin vandalism reported as of this date.”

As for suspects, Sobisky already has a theory: “It’s always kids.” The vast majority of acts of vandalism are committed by teen-agers, he said.

Meanwhile, Ungar spent Sunday making arrangements to have the pumpkin stitched up and moved to a safe new home--the top of a nearby office building.

“People will still be able to see it, but it won’t be the same,” Ungar said. “It seemed appropriate for a pumpkin to be coming out of the ground, especially in Calabasas.”