"Mr. Bush, Keep Off Our Moon"

It all began as a party joke according to Torsten-Eric Sendler, editor-in-chief of the Sauerland Kurier, an advertising paper in the Sauerland region.

Three years ago, readers of the paper bought plots on the moon for 30 deutschmarks each from Nevada-based maverick entrepreneur David Hope, who's been selling lunar estate since the 1980s.

But plans announced by U.S. President George W. Bush in January this year for a permanent presence on the moon caused much outrage among Sauerland's lunar property owners.

"After the plans for a lunar station were unveiled, some worried readers wrote to us asking what would happen to their lunar plots," Sendler told German news magazine Der Spiegel. The paper urged readers to write protest letters to the White House; some 60 have been mailed so far.

Sauerland residents asked Bush not to deface "their" lunar gardens with space junk and some included a written ban on trespassing.

Entrepreneur Hope laid claim to the moon in 1980, arguing that even though international treaties prohibit countries from claiming ownership of extraterrestrial bodies, the treaties do not ban individuals from doing so.

Hope's more prominent lunar clients include actors Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, former U.S. presidents and around 25 members of Congress. He hasn't stopped at the moon, but is also reportedly selling acreage on Mars, Venus and Jupiter.

Meanwhile, piqued residents of Sauerland are reportedly still waiting for a response from the White House.