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Naked Trump statue seized in Cleveland Heights after less than an hour

Statues put up by activist group
Posted at 10:26 PM, Aug 18, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-19 22:04:32-04

It's a view of a presidential candidate you don't expect -- a life-sized statue of Donald Trump in the nude.

Five statues went up in certain cities across the country Thursday morning, including one in Cleveland Heights.

That one was up for less than an hour.

Cleveland Police officers seized the statue that stood tall on the corner of busy Coventry Rd. and quickly impounded it.

Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg said it violated a city ordinance.

"According to the ordinances of Cleveland Heights, it is prohibited to place or leave any article on public property, including public sidewalks," Mecklenberg said. "Therefore the statue of Donald Trump, since it was placed on a public sidewalk, was impounded until the owner comes to retrieve it.  We will make attempts to contact the owner and provide them the opportunity to retrieve their property."

But, the owner doesn't want it. The statues were put up by an activist group called Indeclinein protest of Donald Trump.

"Essentially just saying we're beyond dismayed he's made it this far," a representative of Indecline said. He said they knew the pieces would be destroyed within the day.

The statues also went up in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

So why Cleveland Heights?

Because the artist who created the statues over the course of six months, Ginger, is a die-hard Clevelander.

"One of my stipulations for doing this project was that one of the statues had to go up in my hometown," he said. Ginger usually creates monsters and haunted house pieces, which you can see in photos above.

He said he knew the obscene artwork would come down fast, he just didn't expect Cleveland Heights' to come down the quickest.

"Extremely disappointing. That's actually the most heartbreaking thing of this whole project," Ginger said. "They took it down with brute force."

Ginger said the five statues cost about $6,000 to make. He still has the mold and plans to make more, potentially to sell.