Student's art project provokes alarm in KC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 20-year-old art student faces fines and jail time after his public art project sent police and hazardous materials teams scrambling to inspect unusual items left outside homes in two neighborhoods.

Frank Heath's friends at the Kansas City Art Institute said he was mortified by the response.

He went to police late Thursday after hearing how much commotion he had caused, and on Friday was charged with seven counts of violating a city ordinance that prohibits stirring up the public by leaving an imitation explosive device.

The fright broke out Thursday afternoon when residents began noticing odd objects -- an old TV set, a pair of sneakers, a slow-cook pot -- painted white and left on their porches or curbs. Closer inspection showed the items to be trash the residents had put out weeks ago for pickup.

Odder still, some of the objects emitted music when they were moved. A specific Elvis Presley number, in fact.

"Return to sender," came the voice of Elvis from inside a Crock-Pot, carefully painted white. "Return to sender ... Return to sender ..."

"That's all it was, 'Return to sender,' over and over and over," said resident Bill Johnson, the Crock-Pot's ex-owner. "But it was kind of cool."

Jared Moore, another resident, suspected a stunt from the outset.

"It sounds like a prank I would have pulled if I was in high school," Moore said Thursday night. But, he added, "I know there's probably a little more apprehension in the air after 9-11."

And that was the problem. No one knew if there was something dangerous about the objects.

Adding to some initial apprehension was a report that the first homeowners to call police said a white-painted trash bag left on their porch caused a burning sensation on the skin.

Cordoned off street

Police then cordoned off a street, in the city's Brookside neighborhood, while the bomb squad's robot was sent to determine that the trash bag and another painted item outside another house were safe.

On Friday, Heath was ordered to appear in municipal court Dec. 6 on the seven ordinance violations, each of which carries a maximum fine of $500 and six months in jail. He left town later in the day with his parents, fellow students said.

At the Kansas City Art Institute, communications director Anne Canfield did not identify Heath by name but acknowledged that a student's project had led to the incidents.

"He's embarrassed, and feels bad that this happened," Canfield said. "The student is just so apologetic."

She said the idea of the project was to take an item someone had discarded as having no value "and then through art transform it and return it to them."

Canfield said the student and the school learned a lesson.

"We're just going to use this as an opportunity to educate our students how sensitive they need to be in the post 9-11 environment," she said. "Something like this might not have caused any alarm two or three years ago."