This story was originally published on Jan. 21, 2016.

It started with a crude drawing in snow that appeared over the weekend in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

It looked like this:

(Ake Lindgren)

After images of the drawing circulated online many people complained. So local resident Emilian Sava decided to do something about it.

He went down to the canal and scrubbed the image away:

Emilian Sava scrubbed the original snow penis from the canal. (Emilian Sava )

But Emilian Sava had no idea the snow penis was so popular to some residents of the Swedish city. A Facebook group was even created in its honour.

"I started really feeling sorry for them because they really missed their penis," he told As It Happens host Carol Off.

So Sava decided to make amends.

"In the middle of the night, I wake up, I went to the computer and I write to them: 'I'm really sorry that I deleted your penis.'"

The next day, Sava got out his snow-blower and drew an even bigger snow penis. He posted this video telling the whole story:

He says it may well be the biggest snow penis in the world. But he hopes, not for long.

"I think people around the world are thinking, and they will do much bigger penises than this one," he said. "This is only the start."