Activists turns house flipping signs into pinatas

​John Hoff, who writes the Johnny Northside blog, has a new crusade to add to his ever-imaginative repertoire for helping to revitalize his Minneapolis neighborhood: He and an accomplice, who goes by the name Hawthorne Hawkman, are cruising the  streets and knocking down signs that advertise companies willing to pay cash to homeowners trying to unload property. And he's shooting video. "These are scammers and predators and we're going to take these signs down," Hawkman says in one clip.



In another clip, they turn a sign into a pinata.



Hoff contends the signs, mounted on utility poles, are illegal, and that the businesses they advertise are house-flipping operations that add little economic benefit to an area grappling with foreclosures.