(CNN) A Minneapolis piñata maker is apologizing for hanging pieces of his work -- piñatas which look like black people -- from the front porch of his house.

The episode caused an uproar in his mostly African-American neighborhood after passersby mistook the piñatas, which he says he hung up to dry, for a racist display.

It all started when Victor Chavarria, owner of Happy Kids piñatas, was filling an order for a wedding. The customer had requested racially diverse piñatas that looked like members of their wedding party.

So Chavarria got up at 4 a.m. Friday to create the papier-mache piñatas, then hung them on the front porch of his home in northern Minneapolis to dry.

Someone driving by his house that morning snapped a photo of the piñatas and put it on Twitter.

Dear Minneapolis WTF is this?!?!? pic.twitter.com/4M1iE6JKOU — Ian (@ian_s7) May 4, 2018

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