This Man Says He’s the Mysterious ‘Googly-Eye Bandit’ in Bend, Oregon

Late last month, the city of Bend, Oregon, went viral after someone began sticking googly eyes onto public sculptures around town. Many residents saw the googly eyes as a funny diversion, but city officials were less amused. Writing on social media, they reminded residents that removing the googly eyes costs money and that the adhesives could damage the city’s public art.

Differing opinions aside, the identity of the so-called “googly eye bandit” was always a mystery—until now.

A man named Jeff Keith has come forward to take responsibility for some of the unofficial adornments. Keith is the founder of a nonprofit that fights against human trafficking, and the googly-eye gag provided some much-needed levity amid all the “heavy stuff” he sees at work, as he tells the Associated Press’ Claire Rush.

Keith launched the Bend-based organization, called Guardian Group, in 2010 and currently serves as its CEO. The 53-year-old has lived in Bend, a city with around 100,000 residents, for nearly 20 years.

Keith says he used duct tape to affix googly eyes to two art installations in Bend in early December: one depicting a family of deer called Big Ears by Joe Halko, and a sculpture of a man sitting on a bench called The Traveler by Richard Beyer.

He’s not taking credit for all of the googly eyes—just some of them—and says that he doesn’t know who else was inspired by his initial prank. After he learned that the googly eyes had potentially caused damage, he went to the city’s offices to come clean.

He says he offered to cover the costs of removing the googly eyes, but he tells the New York Times’ Simon J. Levien he never heard back.

Meanwhile, city officials sent a statement to the Oregonian’s Carlos Fuentes.

“The city staff is focused on city operations, wildfire preparedness, council goals and budget development,” wrote Jacob Larsen, a spokesperson for the city. “Our understanding is that a community member may be interested in recognizing the impact of the googly eyes, but we are not pursuing anything at this time nor are city staff in direct conversations with him.”

This isn’t Keith’s first attention-grabbing prank. Every three or four months, when he’s finished with his work for the day, he dons an “old-man mask” and heads out on the town, reports the Washington Post’s Jonathan Edwards. While moonlighting as the “Banksy of Bend,” he tries to do things he thinks will make people smile.

In the past, he’s also attached leis and hula skirts to some of the city’s public sculptures. He also dressed up some figures in wigs and bell bottoms, then added a “disco ball”—fashioned out of a Mylar balloon—to the scene, per the Washington Post.

Keith also hung up a fake sign announcing that the fast food restaurant In-N-Out Burger was coming to Bend. That 2019 prank also made headlines, with the company denouncing the sign as a hoax.

He pulled a similar fake sign prank announcing the opening of a Voodoo Doughnut, a popular Portland-based donut chain, according to the Oregonian. He says he also attached a cardboard cutout of the late actor Chris Farley to a pole in a roundabout.

“I spend 50 bucks a month on my pranks,” Keith tells the Times. “It’s about 10 cents a smile because I know how many people hit our roundabout. It’s worth it.”

In December, the googly eyes appeared on eight sculptures in Bend’s Roundabout Art Route, a path linking 27 art installations in the middle of traffic circles. At the time, city authorities told the Times’ Emmett Lindner that they’d spent $1,500 removing the googly eyes. However, they said they were not conducting an investigation or looking for the people responsible.

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“While the googly eyes placed on the various art pieces around town might give you a chuckle, it costs money to remove them with care to not damage the art,” city officials wrote in an Instagram post.

The googly eyes even got a mention on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

“Authorities are upset after someone put googly eyes on various sculptures in the city,” Colbert said. “Oh, come on, you’re gonna get mad about that? It’s fun.”

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