Police arrested this man because his Christmas lights were just too offensive

Before we had the cursed year of 2020, we had 2016, a year so bad many people thought it could never be topped.

Back then, to bring some Christmas cheer into his life, Steve McGawley decided to go for giggles over traditional festivity.

McGawley went down the tried and tested NSFW route when he set up his lights, by drawing a penis, a bell and the word 'END'.

The police were called (obviously), and initially McGawley refused to come out of his Blackpool home... Because he didn’t have any clothes on. Later, he met them face-to-face.

The police instructed him to take the sign down, but he insisted that it was “festive” and that it was “too late” to take them down.

In a video of the incident, the police can be heard saying:

You can either take it down or you can be charged with a public order offence.

He refused, and the police arrested him.

At the time, Lancashire police spokesman told Metro:

On Monday, December 19, officers attended an address on Rodwell Walk following a number of complaints in relation to fairy lights on the outside of the house. Despite attempts to engage with the occupant the lights were not taken down and a 43-year-old man from Blackpool was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and issued with a penalty notice for disorder.

McGawley was released, and he replaced the sign with an apology.

We can only imagine what he did to cheer us up this year…

A previous version of this article was originally published in December 2016