Vista authorities have their own message for taggers:
“We want them to know that we’re going after them, and it’s going to cost them a lot of money — not only that but jail time,” said Elvys Cabrera, the graffiti investigator for the Vista sheriff’s station.
The arrest Monday of a 16-year-old boy who is believed to be responsible for $100,000 in damage from graffiti vandalism over the past year marks the latest of more than a dozen arrests by Vista deputies since March.
The boy has been booked into Juvenile Hall on 232 counts of felony vandalism. The Sheriff’s Department is investigating 85 other acts of vandalism that also may be connected to the teenager, Cabrera said.
The latest arrest was significant, because no one else in recent memory has come close to causing as much damage as the suspect arrested Monday, Cabrera said. Last week, deputies arrested a tagger allegedly responsible for $40,000 in damage over a two-year period.
CORPUS CHRISTI — Last week a judge gave a graffiti vandal the maximum sentence: eight years. But it turns out the most he can serve is two.
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The man in the hooded sweatshirt and cargo pants was not recognizable, but the three letters he was rendering as a 15-foot mural on the wall of a Hell’s Kitchen building certainly were: B.N.E. This mischievous monogram, posted by marker, spray can, roller and especially stickers, has become part of the landscape of New York and cities worldwide, thrilling graffiti admirers and roiling public officials. Its saturation has provoked one of the more enduring Internet mysteries: What and who is B.N.E.?
