‘Terrorists,’ ‘virgins’ sign at gas station gets attention

A gas station sign board, known in the Willy Street Neighborhood for its quirky sayings, isn’t getting many laughs for its most recent post.

A sign posted outside of the BP at 1130 Williamson St. Thursday morning read, “DONT DIE A VIRGIN TERRORISTS ARE UP THERE WAITING FOR YOU.”

Heather Murphy said she saw an image of the sign posted on Facebook that garnered a lot of response.

“The response to the picture that I saw this morning was ‘Wow, what’s going on with this? This is ridiculous,'” Murphy said. “And one of [the responses said] ‘OK, so if I’m virgin, I’m going to get basically raped when I go to heaven?'”

But the gas station owner wasn’t the author of the sign. It was a man living nearby, Grant Zimmerman, who said he’s been posting messages on the board for about two years.

He said he’s put a variety of messages on the board in the past, jokes like “This is a private sign please do not read,” or puns like “Frog parking only all others toad.”

“As long as it fits on the sign and it’s funny enough, I put it up there,” Zimmerman said.

He said the store owner even liked Thursday’s sign.

“When I put it up the owner said ‘That stays up there for three months,'” Zimmerman added.

The store owner said about 95 percent of the people who come to the gas station like the signs and even snap photos of it. But now he’s reconsidering letting Zimmerman continue posting to the board.

“I’m a little mad, I’m not angry,” Zimmerman said. “I just don’t understand why somebody would complain about that.  It’s just funny, that’s why it’s up there.”

Some upset, some amused by Willy Street gas station sign