Traffic Barrel Monster Man Arrested in Raleigh, NC

Artists are oftentimes quite bizarre people -- they tend to flirt with the mores of society in order to push the limits. Or something. Whatever, Joseph Carnevale is apparently one of those people and he was arrested recently.

What for? Creating the uber-awesome traffic barrel art located to the right. You see, Carnevale apparently caused an utterly devastating $360 worth of damage when he took some of these barrels, chopped them up a bit, painted them and turned them into Traffic Barrel Monster Man. (My name.) So sayeth the Smoking Gun (where they have larger photos.)

According to an arrest warrant, Carnevale "destroyed threeroad blocking barrels by cutting and screwing them together to form a statue." Police estimated that Carnevale's artwork caused $360 in damages to Hamlett Associates, the North Carolina construction company that owned the barrels. Carnevale is scheduled for a July 21 court appearance in Wake County.

I suppose that the authorities in Wake County (who, I'm sure are lovely people, although I've never met any of them, insofar as you know) kind of had to arrest him, right? I mean, the guy did steal some stuff and then take said stuff and make it unusable ever again. Even if "stuff" is "five traffic barrels," which is probably lower than the number that get accidentally run over each night on I-40.

It's just a little annoying that in a time when we all need a little comic relief, we've got the good city of Raleigh plowing through hundreds of dollars in taxpayer money just to make sure that this guy -- this LAWBREAKER -- somehow ends up paying for his heinous crimes of nature. Sigh.