The Billboard Caper

In zesty raids near Chicago last fall, an environmental guerrilla dubbed "the Fox" enraged polluters and entranced citizens by stopping up factory chimneys, plugging sewers and sloshing corporate offices with smelly river muck (TIME, Oct. 5). Still uncaught, the Fox recently gained an equally anonymous ally: "The Billboard Bandit," a single-minded commando devoted to beautifying the roadside near Monroe, Mich.

In two weeks the Bandit's roaring chain saw sliced foot-thick support poles and toppled 35 offensive billboards along U.S. Highway 23. Where motorists once skimmed stirring legends like "Stuckey's Famous Pecans--2 Miles Ahead," they now have only trees and farmland to gaze upon.

Legal Conundrum. Last week the crime was apparently solved, but not before four more billboards bit the dust along Interstate 96 north of Ann Arbor, Mich. Arrested by suspicious police, who spotted an ax and a saw in the back of their car, six Ann Arbor high school boys readily admitted that they were billboard bandits. All excellent students, the bandits include the president of the senior class at Huron High School, a member of the senior executive board, a member of the student council and a debater who most recently distinguished himself by his analysis of Government anti-pollution programs.

Booked on felony charges ("malicious destruction of property"), the suspects freely acknowledged their raids on Interstate 96, but all pleaded innocent --thus posing a nice legal conundrum for prosecuting attorneys. The trouble is that all billboards along Michigan's interstate highways became illegal in 1966, when a new state law required state highway officials to remove or relocate such signs at least 660 ft. from the road. Since Michigan officials widely ignored the law, the students figured that cutting down outlaw signs was all in a good cause. A judge may have a different opinion, but the cutters are sure of their ground. "When the state is negligent in its duty," insists Stanley Pollack, 17, "then someone has to act."

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