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Posted: February 23, 2010

Vandals hit Griffith statue in Mount Airy

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Mount Airy, N.C. — A statue of Andy Griffith was vandalized over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.

The statue outside the Surry Arts Council building depicts the characters of Sheriff Andy Taylor and his son, Opie, from "The Andy Griffith Show," which ran on CBS in the 1960s.

Vandals painted the hair on Griffith's figure green and splashed red paint around his mouth and badge. Town officials didn't have an estimate of the damage but predicted cleaning the statue would be expensive.

The TV Land cable network donated the "Goin' Fishin'" statue to Mount Airy in 2004. Griffith is a Mount Airy native, and the fictional town of Mayberry in "The Andy Griffith Show" was loosely based on it.

TV Land placed a similar statue in Raleigh's Pullen Park in 2003. That statue has been vandalized several times.

Web Editor: Matthew Burns

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Andy represents morals that these people must not have.

enigma1469
February 24, 2010 4:01 p.m.

Ya put an art piece somewhere where anyone can get it, this'll happen.

So they left it unsheltered and unguarded, and now they're gona have to spend thousands to tens of thousands to get it repaired - while people are living in the streets and going hungry.

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to build a little shelter for it that could be locked when not being supervised?

Or better yet - not have it at all. It's not like he won a place of valor by winning a war battle or anything.

God bless.

RB