By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

GREEN TWP. - Tracy Mahaney shot up in bed Sunday morning around 2 a.m. when she heard a loud bang, but she thought she was dreaming.

But as neighbors in her subdivision off West Fork Road awoke that morning, Mahaney and more than a dozen others throughout the township learned they'd been "lawn-jobbed."

There were 4-inch ruts through the Mahaneys' side yard, and a bush had been run over. A stop sign lay in their front yard. The Mahaneys' mailbox was spared, unlike three others on the street.

On Tuesday, Police arrested two people in a week-long spree of lawn-jobs in this western Hamilton County township.

Police said the spate of lawn vandalism here in the past week - more than 40 lawns and mailboxes torn apart - appears to be the work of two people. They hope the courts will force restitution for the damages.

Early on the morning of March 17, seven homeowners in the Highland Oaks subdivision off Rybolt Road were victimized. The same night, 16 lawns were torn up in the nearby Westchase Park subdivision.

Matthew Egner, 20 of Green Township, has been charged with the Highland Oaks lawn jobs, police said. Green Township police charged him with a total of 23 misdemeanor counts of criminal damaging, but he refused to speak with police about the Westchase Park damage.

Police converged on Egner that morning when his car got stuck in the mud in a front yard.

Then early Sunday morning, 18 homes got lawn jobs in Green Township subdivisions.

Anthony Ruther, 18, a student at Western Hills High School, was charged with 13 counts of misdemeanor criminal damaging. Police expect to charge him with five more counts.

"They drive the car through the yard, spin out and try to do as much damage as they can to the yard," said Lt. Col. Bart West of the Green Township Police Department.

Ruther was arrested after Cheviot police spotted him unloading a street sign from his muddy car.

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com