Barrel Monster

RALEIGH, N.C. — When Joseph Carnevale chopped up three stolen orange and white traf­fic bar­rels from a con­struc­tion site to cre­ate a mas­sive sculp­ture of a road­side mon­ster thumb­ing a ride, the North Car­olina col­lege stu­dent said he saw it as a form of street art.

Raleigh, N.C., police just saw vandalism.

They dis­man­tled the 10-foot “bar­rel mon­ster” and arrested Carnevale. Hun­dreds of online sup­port­ers want the charges dropped and the pub­lic­ity has turned the his­tory major and part-time con­struc­tion worker into a local celebrity.

Even the con­struc­tion com­pany has become a fan, and wants the 21-year-old to cre­ate a replica of the fig­ure that led to his arrest on June 10.

Read more at msnbc.
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