— By Andru Shively — 

We previously reported on one US city’s pretty-please pleas urging citizens to stop sticking googly eyes onto works of public art. Down under in Australia, the only such plea being heard is a guilty one in court, where a resident of Mount Gambier, South Australia, was convicted earlier this week on vandalism charges for eyebombing a local sculpture called Cast in Blue.

Nicknamed the Blue Blob by locals, the installation – a mythical megafaunal creature inspired by the area’s marsupial paleontological discoveries – was unveiled last July in the centre of town. By September, the Blob was gifted with invaluable sight.

“It is not harmless fun, it is costly […] and Council remains committed to pursuing cost recovery from those responsible,” Mayor Lynette Martin said following the incident.

Reportedly intoxicated at the time of the eye-crime, the twenty-year-old perpetrator was ordered to pay AUD 2,000 (EUR 1,200) in compensation for repairs and sentenced to 60 hours community service.

While it’s hard to supress a smile at the little plastic googlies wherever they turn up, the Mount Gambier authorities ought to be commended here for not turning a blind eye.