[Photo via Flickr/cooler1011]
An alignment of the planets (awesome spring weather + street fair nearby + daylight saving) produced the necessary catalyst to spark a whole swarm of amateur chalk artists to go to town on the Astor Place cube this weekend. But what'd'ya know? Some kids eventually got hauled away by the cops. And not only for the "graffiti," according to a Gothamist contributor:
Once they showed up, though, the two girls from the very beginning began to shout "LET THEM GO, LET THEM GO". This chant spread, but not without the cops arresting those girls too. It turns out those girls had heroin on them. A large ball of it. Not just heroin, a freaking ball of it. It's possible that it was planted, though.· Astor Cube Attacked with Chalk [Gothamist] UPDATE: Turns out the whole drugs angle was just a nasty rumor, according to a G'ist follow up. They really were just innocent chalkers.