Mysterious ‘LOVE’ signs pop up all over New Orleans

Since April, an anonymous two-man team have been putting up "LOVE" signs all over New Orleans' metro area.

Using New Orleans Police Department crime maps, the two men hung the signs in areas where violent crimes were committed in 2013.

In total, they've hung 350 of the plastic red-lettered signs around the city.

"It can mean so many things to different people, but I do think it's typically a good thing to love and be love," resident Desiree Andreski told WWLTV.

"I do think that the mystery behind it is good, so it has specific meaning to each person, whatever they get from it," she added.

"I kind of think of it like a social experiment," one of the men behind the signs told CBS News.

The men, who want to remain anonymous, told the news station that they wanted to find out if seeing "love" more frequently would make people feel love.

They funded their social experiment with a small inheritance.

"I believe the power of language and words can transform. And the more you think it, the more you speak it, the more real it becomes. And that's what I believe," one of the sign-installers said.

They plan to eventually cross-reference the locations of the signs with crime statistics to see if "love" made a difference in the area.

One of the men, who identified himself as John H. on NOLA.com, tried to clarify the meaning behind the signs:

"Yes it is social, psychological, spiritual, and EVEN ART," he wrote. "But I'm sure you have witnessed one of the greatest effects is people questioning for themselves what the signs mean, and opening dialogues between citizens that are greatly needed. I find it ironic that a lot of people are looking for our personal profit motive here, and not asking themselves 'Could we use more LOVE in NOLA?'"

After the June 29 shooting on Bourbon Street, the men installed two LOVE signs near the crime scene.

"We put 3 quick signs on the corners of Bourbon that surround last nights shooting," they wrote on June 30. "We realize some may consider this naive, but the patterns behind the violence have been building a lot longer than we have been putting up signs. Our efforts certainly can't hurt anything."