The owner of Australia's oldest "big thing" — the Big Scotsman — says the statue has been badly damaged by a group of people known as the "googly eye bandits".
The Big Scotsman was installed on top of Scotty's Motel in Medindie, just outside Adelaide's CBD, in 1963, but two large googly eyes were added to it on Thursday morning.
Motel manager Greg Hobson said guests saw four men and one woman use a cherry picker to install the eyes between 3 and 4am on Thursday.
They had blown away by dawn during windy weather.
But Mr Hobson told ABC Radio Adelaide the pranksters' handiwork had left a 1.5-metre tear in the bagpipe-playing statue.
"What started as a light-hearted prank has turned slightly more serious as poor old Scotty has sustained some damage," he said.
"His sporran appears to be quite loose and there appears to be some damage to the side panels."
Mr Hobson said it was "really sad" as Scotty was well known as a sign drivers were approaching Adelaide.
He has reported the damage to police, although Google Street View shows the statue does appear to have sustained some damage between May 2018 and July 2019.
"He's such an icon," Mr Hobson said.
"It's going to be quite upsetting to a lot of people that he's been hurt in the process.
Large googly eyes have appeared on various advertising signs and statues since the start of last week, including on Colonel Light on Tuesday.
Other locations hit include KFC, Dan Murphy's, the Adelaide Crows headquarters and a Jim's Handyman van.
Former triple j presenters Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton posted a photo of themselves about to put googly eyes on the Big Scotsman on social media on Friday morning.
They now work for a commercial radio station in Adelaide.
Last year, History Trust of South Australia chief executive Greg Mackie said his state government agency would happily take ownership of the Big Scotsman if the other choice was it being scrapped in a redevelopment of the motel.
