LOS ANGELES — UCLA’s bruin mascot has gotten a messy paint job — in the colors of cross-town rival USC.

UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton says the statue in Bruin Square was splashed with red and gold paint sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Vandals cut through a protective tarp to vandalize the statue in the middle of the west Los Angeles campus days before Saturday’s Bruins-Trojans game.
No arrests were made but campus police are investigating.
Meanwhile, USC students in shifts are guarding their Tommy Trojan statue, which also is under wraps.