In the midst of a Toronto neighborhood rests a 13-1/2 foot bronze and granite monument depicting Alexander Wood, famous for both owning the land on which the community now sits, and for being run out of town due to sexual scandal in the early 1800s.

The statue of a hero in Toronto's gay community is the cause of concern both for the actions of the man it depicts and for the somewhat graphic description of the 19th-Century sex scandal that made him famous.

According Reuters, Wood emigrated from Scotland in the 1790s, becoming a merchant, militiaman, and a well-respected magistrate, before running into trouble in 1810. When a woman reported a rape, during his tenure as magistrate, she noted she had scratched the attacker on his genitals.

Wood took matters into his own hands, lining up the suspects and demanding they drop their pants so he could "inspect" them. After word of the incident got around, Wood was widely branded a "molly," a derogatory term for homosexuals, and he agreed to leave town in exchange for not being prosecuted for abusing his position.

The incident is commemorated on the statue's granite base, with a bronze plaque depicting a man's rear-end with his pants around his knees, and Wood's outstretched hand in mid-examination.

According to Mike Calnan, who lives in the neighborhood, people have been rubbing the exposed buttocks, "for luck."