Music icon Johnny Cash may have achieved fame and his first number one hit with his song “I Walk The Line,” but his now-famous image on Arkansas City’s water tower has become even more so thanks to a prank that may be inappropriate, but is definitely funny. 38-year-old Timothy Sled, who was arrested a week after the incident, orchestrated the prank that resulted in Cash’s painted silhouette on the water tower seemingly relieving itself on the singer’s hometown.
“Somebody shot our water tower, shot the silhouette of Johnny Cash in a very sensitive area,” the Mayor of Kingsland, Luke Neal, said while speaking with FOX 16. “It’s been leaking for almost a week.”
Kingsland is now a tourist attraction thanks to the leaking Johnny Cash mural
Kingsland is home to about 500 people and the town decided to honor the legend with a mural on a section of the water tower. The “Man in Black” brandishing a red guitar in his hand was painted on the reservoir in March 2021. The painting’s dimension is the same as Johnny Cash’s: 6-feet, 2-inches in height.
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People are trooping in from neighboring towns to see the leaking mural of the superstar, but not everyone is thrilled, most especially Mayor Neal. He is pissed (no pun intended), because the reckless act costs the town 30,000 gallons of water per day.
The vandal has been arrested
“You kind of run on a tighter budget in small towns like this, because it’s really all you’ve got to work with. And things like this can set you back a little bit,” the mayor explained to local news channel THV-11 about the unfortunate situation. Neal noted that the leak would cost the town nearly $5,000 to repair, plus the crew will have to drain the entire tower before beginning the repair.
Seven days after the attack on the reservoir, the police apprehended Sled, who was charged with two counts of felony for shooting the water reservoir. Sled’s charge was that of criminal mischief and impeding the operation of an essential public utility, which could potentially result in up to sixteen years of prison time.
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