Police say they've detained and cautioned a 38-year-old man who was caught in the act of daubing a British postal box gold.

The Royal Mail has been bestowing this honor on specific post boxes nationwide to mark the home cities, towns and villages of Britain's gold-winning athletes. But the public are supposed to leave this symbolic gilding to the experts.

The man in question got a little too much into the spirit of the Olympics at 2:50 a.m. in a south London neighborhood. The result: a post box now half-red, half-gold

Police have declined to identify the man but have quoted him as saying during interrogation: "I'm sorry. ... It was meant to be a bit of fun and part of the Olympic fever."

— Shawn Pogatchnik — Twitter http://twitter.com/ShawnPogatchnik

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