NJ Roadside Sign for Saddam, Osama Gets Major Update

It was taken down after seven years of frustration, but now it's back up -- with an update.

A roadside sign celebrating the capture of Saddam Hussein and boasting that Osama bin Laden would be next is back up on Route 17 in Rutherford, N.J., with a new message: "Mission Accomplished."

Nick Testa, who first put up the sign on his towing service fence after Hussein was nabbed in Iraq, had left it up for seven years for tens of thousands of passing motorists to see every day.

It reads "ONE DOWN...ONE TO GO! OSAMA YOU'RE UP!!!"

Then this past winter he took it down.

"Time was going on and we were getting worried that they wouldn't get him," Testa said.

Testa told NBC New York that he was going to paint it over with a "Thank Our Troops" message instead, and rehang it in a few weeks.

But after Sunday's successful operation to target and kill bin Laden, Testa went to a sign shop Monday morning and ordered up the "Mission Accomplished" banner.

He put the sign back up with the banner and admitted he was elated.

"I'm a big George Bush supporter," Testa said of the former president, but then added "I think Obama did a wonderful job."

Testa said he did not vote for Obama in 2008.

When asked if his newfound admiration for the president could change his mind when Obama runs for re-election, he deferred with a smile on his face and simply said again: "I think he's doing a good job."

Follow Brian Thompson on Twitter @brian4NY

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