Long a place of pilgrimage for U2 fans, the Mohave Desert tree immortalised on the sleeve of the Dublin band's 1987 classic The Joshua Tree album has been vandalised.
It had fallen over in 2000, which hadn't deterred visitors, and now a chunk of it is missing.
Posting on atu2, forum member and fan "Hwy190" wrote:
“This past Sunday, I made my proverbial yearly hike out to the Tree with my dog to reminisce only to find that some hack and I do mean hack, decided it was a bright idea to take a hacksaw to one of the Tree’s limbs – evidently to remove an inch thick cross section as a souvenir. Are you kidding me?”
You can see the sight that greeted them above.
Hwy190 followed up with: "Leave the damn Tree alone, so that future fans can enjoy it. Left alone, the Tree will be there for many, many decades to come.” My two cents: Take pictures, they last longer!"
Needless to say, Hot Press is currently hard at work trying to track down the missing piece and bring the perpetrators to justice...