NC town’s tagline is ‘simply unexpected.’ Same goes for theft of its 30-foot billboard
About 36 miles down Interstate 40 from U.S. 321 — just shy of Asheville if you’re driving from Charlotte — sits the city of Marion, population 7,891, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The billboard on I-40 urging passersby to stop in for a visit advertises the city as “simply unexpected.”
Or it did, before someone stole it.
“It sure was unexpected, I’ll tell you that. It never crossed my mind that somebody stole it,” Freddie Killough, director of the Marion Business Association, told McClatchy News. “I thought that there had been a mistake in bookkeeping.”
The seemingly innocuous billboard promoting Marion disappeared overnight last weekend “a whole 10 days” after it went up, Killough said. She drove to visit her mom in Old Fort — about 12 miles east of Marion — on Saturday and saw the billboard clear as day.
But by the time she drove home Sunday, it was gone.
“Our billboard vinyl was very colorful, so it was very distinctive that it was missing,” she told McClatchy News.
The billboard measures 36 feet by 12 feet and is made of vinyl, according to the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office. Killough said it was located closer to Old Fort, about six or eight miles from Marion.
It also wasn’t mounted on poles, she said.
“It was actually easily accessible from the ground but it was up on the bank, so it was easily accessible,” Killough said. “We just didn’t think about somebody stealing it.”
When she realized the billboard was gone, Killough said she called the man who owns the billboard. He then got in touch with the installer, who found the straps that secured the billboard were missing.
City officials surmise it was taken at night — though no one quite knows how or why.
The billboard shows a picture of downtown Marion with a U.S. flag in the foreground and the words “Exit 81. Marion. Simply Unexpected” plastered in big white letters, according to images shared by the sheriff’s office.
Killough said it’s “nothing controversial, nothing exciting — well we think it’s exciting — but nothing that should really cause a problem.”
The billboard was paid for by Marion Business Association in partnership with the city, she said. It’s rented for $350 a month, and they’d already paid through June 30, 2021, she said.
A new billboard has already been ordered, and Killough told McClatchy News they hope to have it up by the end of the week.
“It was a rather bizarre experience,” she said. “Totally unexpected.”
Anyone with information about the billboard’s whereabouts or who took it can call Detective Robert Watson at (828) 652-2237 or McDowell County Crime Stoppers at (828) 65-CRIME (652-7463). Crime Stoppers also accepts tips via text message. Text “TIP MCDOWELLSO” and any information you have to 888777.
