The government of Savannah, Georgia wants everyone to know that personal preferences aside, “googly eyes” do not belong on statues. “Who did this?!” the City of Savannah Government posted to its Facebook page Thursday. It illustrated the post with two photos that showed how someone had stuck googly eyes on a statue of Nathanael Greene, a Revolutionary War general that is in the city’s Johnson Square. “It may look funny but harming our historic monuments and public property is no laughing matter,” the city wrote. “In fact, it’s a crime.” It then asked anyone with any information to come forward.
What the city got instead was a viral Facebook post as social media users all seemed to agree there was much better use of taxpayer money than looking for the person who stuck googly eyes on a statue. “It is a trespassing,” police public information coordinator Bianca Johnson told BuzzFeed News. “It is technically a crime, so we are going to be looking at the [surveillance] cameras and seeing what comes of it.” Johnson recognized the eyes “didn’t do any damage” but “if we didn’t do anything this thing could get out of hand.”
Some, however, predicted the effect would be just the opposite as many would see it as a challenge to stick as many googly eyes as possible on statues. “So I’m not a part of this community or anything, but you guys do realize you just dared your entire city to googly eyes all of your monuments right?” a Facebook user named Greg Lamb wrote. “Just pick the eyes off and move on.”
