Vandals stopped the hands on the eastern face of the Healy clock tower early Friday morning and hung a banner reading, “Idle Hands are the Devil’s Playground,” in the latest prank on the iconic timepiece.

A patrolling Department of Public Safety officer noticed the banner covering the face of the clock around 7 a.m., according to Doris Bey, assistant director of DPS. The DPS officer alerted his supervisors, but the banner was blown off in the wind shortly thereafter.

Witnesses said that the banner was hanging over the clock shortly after 4 a.m., but Bey said it was unknown exactly when it was placed there. She said DPS is unsure if the person who hung the banner scaled the outside of the building or reached the clock from some other manner.

The hands on the clock were still stopped at 1:30 as of yesterday, though the bells inside the clock tower continue to function properly.

The prank occurred just over a year after two students stole the hands from the westward-facing clock in September 2005. The students confessed and returned the hands after a two-week investigation by DPS.

The banner is now in DPS’s possession, David Morrell, vice president for university safety, said. He described it as a large piece of canvas with black spray-painted words and that it is now the subject of a DPS investigation.

DPS officers are stationed at Healy Gates every night, and DPS supervisors check on the area in front of Healy Hall periodically. Bey said DPS officers did not observe any unusual activity on the clock tower Thursday night.

Bey said that she believes the incident was a practical joke.

“It’s a pretty well-known axiom,” she said of the phrase on the banner, “although they changed the word `workplace’ to `playground.'”

She said that the vandals may have been inspired by the day of the year.

“We have been challenged on several Friday the 13ths with incidents of a various nature,” Bey said. “Students here at Georgetown can become very creative.” She also said the vandals may have timed the prank for the first day of Parents Weekend.

The event follows the theft of a sign from the westward door of the Gervase Building at the end of September, which prompted a broadcast e-mail pleading for its return Friday night.

Sonia Jacobson, director of the Honor Council, which is located in Gervase, said that she first contacted the Office of Facilities on Sept. 29 after noticing the sign was missing.

Jacobson said the sign may cost as much as $450, making it a Class B offense if it was stolen. The Code of Conduct says that students found guilty of a Class B offense could face fines and sanctions, including disciplinary probation or suspension.

“It’s a lack of understanding of what the costs are,” Jacobson said. “This involves time, money and inconvenience.”

She added that the Honor Council has not filed a crime report with DPS.

Kyle Stedman, a Georgetown graduate student and assistant to the Honor Council, created the e-mail, which was made to resemble a wanted ad offering the exchange of free banana bread for the return of the sign and a phone number to leave a ransom message.

“I would rather describe it as a blend of joke and seriousness . but it’s not a joke in the sense that we want [the sign] back,” Stedman said. “We really are okay arranging an anonymous drop-off without any kind of prosecution if theft is indeed involved.”