By Keith Phucas, Special to The Mercury
NORRISTOWN — A mysterious graffiti vandal sought by police for 18 months left behind a clue at the site of one defaced property that made her easy to find — the address of her MySpace page.
Melanie Brockway, 23, has allegedly “tagged” about 100 locations in Norristown with her graffiti symbols, according to the Norristown Police Department. A 17-year-old boy was also arrested for graffiti vandalism in the borough.
Brockway, an unemployed Norristown mother of two children, allegedly spray painted graffiti on numerous houses, garages and businesses in the West End, as well as newspaper boxes, electrical boxes at Latshaw Field, and on playground equipment at Crawford Park and another park on West Lafayette Street. Her graffiti vandalism is estimated to have caused $10,000 in damages; the estimated damage of the teenager’s graffiti is at least $20,000, according to police.
Brockway, who graduated from Norristown Area High School in 2003, left a sticker identifying her MySpace account and directed anyone interested in contacting the “artist” to contact “Devient Art.” The Haws Avenue woman has two MySpace sites, according to police. She even offered to give away T-shirts. “She calls herself an aspiring artist,” said Norristown Police Chief Russell Bono. “She did that all over town.”
Graffiti often conjures up images in the public’s mind of violent gangs, but in the past two years, Norristown police have dismissed this idea. The gang perception is a mistaken one, at least in Norristown, according to Detective Lt. Kevin McKeon.
“They think it’s gang related, and it’s not,” he said.
The teenager boy, also a Norristown resident, is responsible for between 150 and 200 graffiti tags, Bono said.
Police Detective Raymond Emrich and Officer Nicholas Santo have been trying to catch a vandalism suspect since last year. After the arrests, the officers photographed the vandalism.
“Unless you catch them in the act, it’s very difficult to arrest anybody,” the chief said.
After tracking Brockway through her online account, police questioned her and she allegedly admitted to “tagging” all areas of Norristown with her distinctive “SKTCH” and the acronym “DVNC,” according to a criminal complaint.
Accompanying the majority of the graffiti was a symbol with a face in the center and insect-like “legs” extending out and curling up at the ends. On her MySpace page, the woman is pictured seated on one of the legs of the design.
On Nov. 24, Emrich and other Norristown police officers obtained a search warrant and went through the 23-year-old suspect’s house. Police discovered cans of spray paint and “practice tags” showing the same style letters and symbols found around town.
Brockway was arrested and taken into custody. At the police station, she gave a statement confessing to tagging “80 to 100 properties, probably more.”
When police searched the teenager’s house on Stanbridge Street, which he shares with his parents, they found graffiti paraphernalia, stencils and cans of spray paint.
The suspects have been charged with institutional vandalism and criminal mischief. Because the damage is $10,000 or more, the latter charge is a felony offense.
