The Royal Mail has a message for overexuberant Olympics fans: Leave the spray can at home.

The postal service has been painting traditional red mailboxes gold in the hometowns of every British Olympic champion — but has appealed to Britons not to do the same.

Two men have been detained by police for unauthorized mailbox gilding, and a postbox in the central England town of Doddington was painted bronze after the British women's field hockey team took the third-place prize.

"We understand the sentiment, and congratulate the women's hockey team on their achievement," a Royal Mail spokeswoman said. "However we'd rather people left the painting of postboxes to us."

— Jill Lawless http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.