Vandals Caught Marking Up Downtown Sacramento
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Graffiti gone wild. Taggers went on spray painting spree on Sunday leaving their mark across downtown Sacramento, but three suspects were caught in the act.
Reports came in of guys painting the town red and black and perhaps gray too, coloring up six blocks of downtown Sunday.
The crew at Capital Warehouse Electric is used to cleaning and clearing the colors. They've been around since the 1970s.
"We get a lot of tagging around here," Jesse Durant said. "Seems like we're always cleaning up something in this area. The brick is a lot harder to get off. It's a lot more porous than the other stuff."
Three suspects were arrested and charged with vandalism after being caught at the bus stop on 9th and P by officers.
"It's good they got caught and pay for the cleanup," said Alan Osborne, a longtime downtown business owner whose studio got tagged. "They paint the front door and the side of the building."
He's an artist and to him, this is far from that. It's a nuisance and a costly crime.
"I plan to cover it with a basic brown paint," he said.
People downtown are simply sick of seeing unsightly signs everywhere, while cops say their hands are tied. It's hard to handcuff the taggers unless they're caught in the act.
"It's unsightly but I don't think there's anything that can be done about it," one downtown visitor said Monday.
Business owners said despite the three arrests Sunday, they don't expect the graffiti to stop anytime soon. They say it's just a part of doing business in downtown Sacramento.
