Associated Press

The Joker, the central villain in "The Dark Knight" who presents jester-faced playing cards as his signature, appears to have been the inspiration for several defaced playing cards found in a Pearisburg Wal-Mart and a Christiansburg Kmart.

Two Pembroke teenagers have been charged in connection with a series of playing cards that were defaced with threatening writing and left at stores in Christiansburg and Pearisburg -- a gesture police said the teens admitted had been inspired by this summer's Batman movie, "The Dark Knight."

Justin Colby Dirico and Bryan Eugene Stafford, both 18, admitted to leaving cards that bore handwritten messages inside the Pearisburg Wal-Mart, according to police Chief J.C. Martin.

Martin would not say how they identified the suspects but said the teens admitted Tuesday during police interviews they were responsible for the cards, which they patterned after elements of "The Dark Knight." Both were charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.

In Christiansburg, the same pair of teens was charged Wednesday with disorderly conduct in connection with cards left inside the town's Kmart, said police Maj. Dalton Reid.

Martin said police were contacted Saturday by a Wal-Mart employee, who reported finding several defaced playing cards throughout the store.

Four cards were also found at the Christiansburg Kmart between Aug. 7 and Sunday, Reid said. The cards had "Joker" written on them and Reid said police considered them threatening. The threats on the Christiansburg cards were less specific than the ones found in Pearisburg, but they also referred to Aug. 15.

The teenagers "were real remorseful. They said they never had any intentions of harming anybody," Martin said after talking with them. He said it appeared to be "a prank that kind of got out of hand."

He said he believed the Aug. 15 date was randomly selected and bore no real significance.

Similar cards continue to be found at other locations. Pearisburg police were notified Monday that a card with a similar threat had been left on the windshield of a vehicle parked at the town's Dairy Queen. The vehicle belongs to a Dairy Queen employee who, Martin said, may know one of the teens.

Another defaced playing card was found Wednesday at a Pearisburg auto parts store and was turned over to police.

Reid said Christiansburg police have reason to believe similar cards were placed in two other Christiansburg stores, though none has turned up.

In "The Dark Knight," Batman's nemesis, the Joker, presents jester-faced playing cards as his signature and uses them to mark the scenes of his crimes. At one point in the film, the character hides cards in the possession of three public officials he's trying to assassinate, but he does not use the cards to deliver specific threats. Throughout the movie, the character does use graffiti and defaced signs and photographs to send threats and messages.

Dirico and Stafford are being held at the New River Regional Jail without bond.

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