Man, 19, Charged Over Offensive Arby's Sign Board

SEPTEMBER 7--A Minnesota man is facing several criminal charges after admitting that he rearranged the letters on a sign board outside an Arby’s restaurant to spell out an offensive message.

According to police, Usindini Christopher Colling-Harper, 19, said that he was waiting for a bus when he decided to alter the sign outside the eatery in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb.

Colling-Harper, who told cops he was “bored” at the time, gathered letters from both sides of the sign board to create the message “NOW HIRING NIGGERS AND WHORES.”

A patrolman who spotted the altered sign around 7 AM Saturday “immediately removed the message and notified the business when they opened,” police reported.

Cops investigating the defacement turned to Facebook, where the image was first posted by Colling-Harper’s girlfriend. The woman identified Colling-Harper as the perpetrator, adding that he thought the racist message was “funny.”

When confronted by police, Colling-Harper reportedly confessed. The defendant, who lives in Minneapolis, has “no known ties to Arby’s and was not employed by the restaurant.”

Colling-Harper was charged by summons yesterday with criminal defamation, public nuisance, and disorderly conduct, all misdemeanors.

In a series of Facebook updates, Colling-Harper (pictured at left) has posted photos of the defaced sign and replied to a friend’s question about what the Arby’s sign read prior to his handiwork. “Idk it some like now hiring managers and sum else,” he wrote. “I got letters from the other side of the sign.”

Colling-Harper also posted a photo of the defaced sign to his Instagram page along with the caption, “This why nobody eats Arby’s.” That account, however, appears to have been closed within the last week. (1 page)