A man dressed up as the Dark Lord of the Sith descended with his entourage on a beach parking lot in the Ukrainian city of Odessa to demolish illegal barriers, local media reported.
The parking lot was not outfitted with automated payment systems, allegedly allowing its owners to pocket the money intended for the city budget, Dumskaya.net said on Monday.
The situation triggered a bout of vigilantism, which united the alleged Darth Vader, local official Alexei Goncharenko and a number of grassroots activists, the report said.
Photos from the crackdown showed a group of stout men in slippers and shorts tearing out the barrier without meeting any resistance. A Darth Vader double could be seen next to them, sporting yellow sneakers and waving around a silvery “lightsaber.”
Leaving a car at an Odessa Black Sea beach cost 7 hryvnia ($0.85) an hour or 20 hryvnia a day, the report said.
This is not the first time the leader of the Sith has become involved in Odessa’s public life. In 2011, a man in a Darth Vader mask and cape sought to obtain a land plot in the city and, separately, publicly invited city mayor Alexei Kostusyov to join the Dark Side. The offer was later declined by a mayoral spokeswoman.
