A Vermont man built and erected a giant middle finger statue on his front lawn to spite town officials after they repeatedly denied his petition to build a garage on his own property. Ted Pelkey, from Westford, spent more than $4,000 on the structure but something tells me the petty satisfaction he got from it was well worth the money.
- Pelkey was fed up with the town’s unreasonable attitude. “I’ve been put through the wringer by these people, and it’s just not right,” Pelkey told Boston.com. “I was sitting at a bar and said to my wife, ‘Hey, I want to get a statue made of a middle finger, and I’m going to put it up on the lawn.'”
- The middle finger statue really is gigantic. Pelkey wanted to make sure it could be seen from anywhere, so not only does the 700-pound statue sit on a 16-foot pole, but he also put up floodlights so that drivers and people walking by would be able to clearly view it no matter the time of day. Genius!
- It’s the town’s Development Review Board that’s being unreasonable. Pelkey had submitted plans for an 8,000 square foot garage on his own property as he wanted to move his recycling company and truck repair shop there and eliminate his daily commute of about 25 miles. “You can get out of bed in the morning, take your coffee, walk across the driveway, and go to work,” said Pelkey. “What would you want to do?”
- Authorities can’t force Pelkey to remove the middle finger statue. Yes, the state has a law banning billboards, but Pelkey’s not advertising anything besides an annoyance with officials so it’s totally legal. “The structure does not meet the statutory definition of ‘sign’ and thus can’t be regulated under the Vermont Billboard Law,” Jacqui DeMen, a spokesperson for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, told Boston.com.
- This statue is the height of pettiness and I love it. Seriously, Ted Pelkey is a national hero. Long may this giant middle finger glitter our skies.
