Barrel Monster – An N.C. State student named Joseph Carnevale created the “Barrel Monster” seen below out of the ubiquitous orange and white traffic barrels alongside a highway construction project.

The Barrel Monster was inevitably snatched up by a righteous Raleigh police officer and impounded as evidence of the crime of his creation.

Officers filed misdemeanor charges of larceny and damage to property against Joseph Carnevale, a 22-year-old history major at N.C. State University.

Carnevale is charged with larceny and damage to property — much to the dismay of a growing contingent of Barrel Monster fans.

Facebook groups such as “Don’t Charge Joseph Carnevale” and “Art isn’t Crime!” have formed, with Barrel Monster supporters being urged to contact Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby and ask that the charges be dropped.

Willoughby said his office will review the case before deciding whether it will move forward. He said he’d never heard of the Barrel Monster before the resulting media storm and that he found the photo of the barrel creature entertaining.

“Rearranging them — legally that doesn’t sound like a larceny,” Willoughby said. “There might be something more to the story than I know, but it doesn’t sound like anything of grievous harm.”

The owner of the barrels used in creating the monster, Hamlett Associates, said they weren’t interested in pressing charges, said Daniel Hall, a project manager for the company, and actually wanted to try it out.

“I kind of wanted the Barrel Monster back,” Hall said, adding that the monster and maybe a clone around the construction zone would be more effective than the existing barrels in deterring traffic.

Joseph Carnevale had this to say on his blog about the mysterious urge to create the traffic creature:

“I couldn’t get it out of my head. Its that itch, that need to make real an idea that has rolled around in one’s head for days, snowballed itself into a temporary obsession that just has to be satisfied.

I arrived in a flash and snatched them up from where they stood on the street. As I threw them into the trunk of the vehicle I had to rough them up some so they would fit. I shoved and beat and mangled them into place and was off before any witnesses knew what had even happened.

Later on that night, they stood huddled in the corner of the room, silent. They looked on while I slowly set out the duct tape and plugged in the power drill. Then I pulled out the switchblade and released the cold metal blade. They would never be the same.”

And that’s the latest on the incredibly popular Barrel Monster.

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