LOS ANGELES – NASA and LAPD officials were stunned late this afternoon when the Space Shuttle was tagged after being left unsupervised for only about 6 minutes. ”We are supposed to have at least two guards on duty 24/7 but evidently they both went to the bathroom at the same time,” said an incredibly embarrassed LAPD Captain Eddie Matthews. ”Needless to say this is going to delay the opening of the exhibit for quite a while.”

Investigation is underway to determine the identity of the taggers. ”This group was really well-organized and had incredibly large spray cans,” continued Matthews. “The officers were stunned when they came back to the scene. One of them told me he would have had a real problem if he hadn’t just gone to the bathroom.”

The damage is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars according to NASA liaison Nick Sput. ”We are going to have to bring in a restoration expert from the Smithsonian to handle this work. It is going to be really difficult to match the original paint exactly.”

Needless to say, security at the scene has been dramatically increased to make sure that this is a one time problem.