It may look funny, but it's a crime - that was the message from officials in the US city of Savannah.

Their words came after somebody placed googly eyes on a relief sculpture of Nathanael Greene, a Revolutionary War general buried in the city's historic Johnson Square.

In a Facebook post, the local government organisation wrote: "Who did this?!

"Someone placed googly eyes on our historic Nathanael Greene statue in Johnson Square.

"It may look funny but harming our historic monuments and public property is no laughing matter, in fact, it's a crime."


Image: Some criticised officials for not having anything better to do. Pic: City of Savannah

The post seemed stern but many of those who saw it - it has been shared more than 23,000 times in just a few days - responded with a mixture of humour and exasperation.

One person replied: "Let's worry about something a little more serious. It'd cost 50x more just to put them in jail for a day", while another wrote: "Maybe you could entertain the revolutionary idea of simply removing them? It's really not that difficult."

Others wrote about the "googly eye bandit", saying the culprit should be "tarred and googly-eyed".

Police spokeswoman Bianca Johnson told local media the person responsible would face trespassing charges, as they would have crossed a fence to get to the statue.

Greene is buried under the 50ft marble monument, which suffered no other damage.