The famed Hollywood sign high in the hills over Los Angeles got a little higher on Sunday, when someone altered two of its letters to make it read "Hollyweed." Police said unidentified thrill-seekers had climbed up and arranged tarps over the two letter "O's" to make them look like "E's," CBS affiliate KCAL reported. Each letter is 45 feet high, so the feat would have required not just bravado but considerable athleticism.
The daring act may have been taken in celebration of a measure approved in November, when California voters passed an amendment legalizing recreational use of marijuana. A police spokesman said surveillance cameras might help them identify the culprit or culprits; the act was being treated as a case of misdemeanor trespassing. It was not the first such incident since the sign was first erected in 1923 -- at the time as "Hollywoodland" -- to advertise a local real estate development. Perhaps not coincidentally, the same lettering change to the sign was made exactly 41 years ago, when a California law relaxing penalties for marijuana use took effect.
