Vandals hit Griffith statue in Mount Airy
A statue of Andy Griffith in downtown Mount Airy was vandalized over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.
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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.
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