Mysterious Men with TV Sets on Their Heads Are Leaving Old TVs on Lawns across Richmond, VA

For the second time, dozens of residents in the Hampshire neighborhood on the west side of Richmond, VA, woke up to a bizarre sight: Old CRT TVs, left portentously on their doorsteps or front lawns. It’s an echo of a similar event that happened in the Richmond area last year, only this time the stakes have been raised: More than 60 TVs were left behind, rather than last year’s 20. Oh, and did we mention they were all delivered by men wearing TVs on their heads, under the cover of darkness?

Truly, this is the stuff local human interest stories are made of. Who can say what the motives are of these mysterious, TV-headed men? Richmond’s own subreddit was quick to speculate: “Is this guy our new masked hero? Gotham has Batman, RVA has TV Head.” One has to wonder about the logistics, in particular. Where are the “TV Heads” locating all of these old CRT TVs? How are they traveling about these neighborhoods, in giant vans filled with TV sets? How many people are wearing the mask, and what is their intention? Is it simply some kind of senior prank, or a particularly inventive bit of performance art? Are they fans of the comic series Saga, with its TV-headed antagonist Prince Robot IV? You can see video of these strange fellows in the video below.

Local police, unsurprisingly, are looking to quash the buzz, and not just because the task of properly disposing of the 60-plus TVs fell to them. According to Richmond’s NBC12, police are saying the “perpetrators” of such a heinous act could face charges of “littering on private property” or illegal dumping, if caught—although it’s hard to imagine how that will happen, unless the TV Heads keep at their nightly activities, which seems unlikely. Local residents, on the other hand, seem more bemused by the bizarre sequel to last year’s TV dumping event, with one saying the following: “I’m thinking it’s a senior prank, maybe senior year going in high school, or bored college kids before they go back to school trying to create a big buzz before they go back to college and say ‘Hey, look what I did.’”

Who knows—perhaps this will simply become a once-a-year tradition in RVA going forward? Soon enough, old-timers will be saying things like “A’yup, you know the school year has almost begun when the TVs start showing up on lawns.”