Snowboarder Shaun White Cited in Fire Extinguisher Prank

Dec. 20, 2007 — -- It's the kind of prank most young people have thought about. Police say Olympic gold-medal winning snowboarder Shaun White intentionally set off a fire extinguisher this week in the game room of a Colorado ski resort.

The 21-year-old, dubbed the "Flying Tomato" because of his red hair, was charged with second degree criminal tampering.

White was caught on security video setting off the extinguisher, according to a police report. Cops said they found him, in part, because of his distinctive shoes. Police smelled alcohol on White's breath at the time of his arrest.

White had the misfortune of being caught for allegedly doing something many young people have probably dreamed of doing.

"Have you not wanted to pull the pin and give it a squeeze?" said Walter Afield, an adolescent psychiatrist. "We all have that fantasy, but we don't do it because it is dangerous."

Afield said it's common to feel the pull to play with a fire extinguisher.

"It looks interesting," he said. "You see a banister and you want to slide down it. It's a fantasy people want to do." But, Afield said, "He knows better. It's dangerous."

Police say a surveillance video shows a man taking the fire extinguisher from the wall inside the game room at the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, placing it on the ground and "then a large cloud of smoke begins to develop as the extinguisher is discharged."

White was stopped later in the night and questioned about a stolen car, though he was not arrested and police said he is no longer a suspect in that crime. While White was being detained, police noticed that his clothes and "distinctive" shoes matched those of the person in the surveillance tape, according to the police report. They also matched the tread marks on his shoes to those left in the fire extinguisher dust.

White, who won a 2006 gold medal for the half-pipe, was given a summons, which he signed and "wadded up and shoved a copy in his pocket," according to the police report. He will appear in court in March and faces up to a year in jail or fines.