By ZACH PLUHACEK / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A truck mowed down a colony of wooden penguins in Wayne Ficke's yard Monday night, Feb. 13, 2012. (JACOB HANNAH/Lincoln Journal Star)

Wayne Ficke awoke Tuesday morning to a front lawn littered with roadkill, which is unfortunate for a couple of reasons.
For one, his lawn isn't a road -- despite the opinion of a local truck driver, whose identity remained unknown at midday Tuesday.
Even more troubling, Wayne himself had crafted the six life-sized masonite penguins, now casualties of a St. Valentine's Day massacre. He even built a baby penguin, a bit smaller and wearing gray paint instead of tuxedo colors.

"This was definitely deliberate," the 74-year-old said, surveying the carnage.
The responsible party apparently used Wayne's yard as a shortcut between Y Street and North Cotner Boulevard, undercutting the southwest corner of the intersection by about 10 yards and plowing into all six penguins in the process.
"I had six more at one time. Somebody stole five of those.
"We've had a lot of stuff like this."

Wayne and Jo Ann Ficke and their five adopted children have lost bicycles and a wood-carving toolbox. Once, a drunken person drove into their lawn and got stuck.
This time, Wayne didn't call the police. Or the Game and Parks Commission.
No dead wildlife here, he said.
"Looks like they're all OK."

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