
 
 GET HIM! 
 
 Late last week the Montgomery County Police put out a notice that they're looking for Phil, accusing him of fraudulently passing himself off as a weather-forecasting groundhog. While they still have no leads, they did offer up some hints as to where they're looking: "He may be hiding in a hole." 
 
 If local cops do manage to snag Phil and not throttle him too hard in sheer anger over his forecasting follies, they might have to fight with other law enforcements officers over who gets to try him first: last week Phil was indicted for fraud by an Ohio prosecutor. 

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 An Ohio prosecutor who light-heartedly filed a criminal indictment against the famous Pennsylvania groundhog who fraudulently "predicted" an early spring said he may consider a pardon now that the animal's handler is taking the blame. 
 
 FILE - This Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 file photo shows Groundhog Club Co-handler Ron Ploucha holding the weather predicting groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, after the club said Phil did not see his shadow and... (Associated Press) 
 
 Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, told The Associated Press on Monday that the animal rightly predicted six more weeks of winter last month, but he mistakenly announced an early spring because he failed to correctly interpret Phil's "groundhog-ese." 
 
 "I'm the guy that did it; I'll be the fall guy. It's not Phil's fault," Deeley said. 
 
 Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor Mike Gmoser told the AP that he's reconsidering the charges in light of the new evidence and may issue a full pardon. 
 
 "Frankly, he is a cute little rascal, a cute little thing," Gmoser said. "And if somebody is willing to step up to the plate and take the rap, I'm willing to listen." 
 
 The Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, a borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, attracts worldwide attention each year. But the attention stretched well beyond Feb. 2 when Gmoser last week issued an indictment as winter-like weather continued across much of the nation even as spring began. 
 
 "Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Gmoser's indictment said. The penalty? Death, Smoser said, tongue firmly in cheek. 
 
 Deeley said this is the second year in a row he's misinterpreted Phil's forecast. "Remember, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter," Deeley said. 
 
 Under normal circumstances, Deeley's interpretation of the forecast is infallible, as long as he clings to the gnarly, magical "Arcadian" cane while the rodent whispers the forecast into his ear. Deeley still doesn't know what went wrong, but he said the borough is nonetheless pleased to still be in the news more than six weeks later _ although there's more snow on the ground, and local schools were closed Monday. 
 
 "We couldn't have generated this much publicity with a $10,000 ad campaign," he said.
– Seems Punxsutawney Phil is on everybody's not-so-hot list after promising an early spring that didn't exactly come to pass. Days after an Ohio prosecutor indicted the weather-predicting groundhog, calling for the death penalty, a Maryland police department has issued a wanted poster, DCist reports. The critter is wanted for fraud because he "claims he is a weather forecasting groundhog," yet Montgomery County is "still waiting" on that early spring. Tip from cops: "He may be hiding in a hole." But Phil has been issued a reprieve by the Ohio prosecutor, after the groundhog's handler took the blame for the faulty forecast. "I'm the guy that did it; I'll be the fall guy. It's not Phil's fault," Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, tells the AP. He explains that he didn't interpret Phil's "groundhog-ese" correctly, and that Phil actually did predict six more weeks of winter. In return, prosecutor Mike Gmoser has dismissed the charge.