Taggers caught ‘blue-handed’

The Dalles Police Sgt. Dan Nelson was “sitting dark” in his patrol car downtown when he heard the rattle of a can of spray paint within a block of his location.

Maybe 10 minutes later and a few blocks away, a citizen reported seeing two teens run from their carport down an alley.

Nelson got there quickly enough to see the teens briefly as they ran away.

He and other city and county law officers then converged on the area on foot, following a trail of graffiti “like bread crumbs,” Nelson said. “They tagged something every 50 feet.”

Officers set up a perimeter, and drawing on his 22 years with the police department, Nelson estimated where and how the teens would run and was directing another city officer, Austin Ell, “to where I thought they were hiding.” Sure enough, Ell found the two, at around 3 a.m., hiding in a shed in a backyard around East Eighth and Harris streets.

As Nelson helped handcuff one of the teens, he saw blue paint on the youth’s hands.

Nelson said he was “pretty dang happy” with the arrest, because the tagging sprees in town are “just out of control.”

He said the department had been slammed with reports of graffiti, and day shift officers have spent countless hours taking those reports in recent months.

Sgt. Jamie Carrico has coordinated the effort and done the bulk of legwork in the case, Nelson said.

Nelson said it’s not that uncommon to catch people in the act of committing crimes, “but things like catching a burglar in the act is awesome. And catching these kids in the act, one of those where it’s really, really a pain in your side … it’s just awesome. A very cool thing.”

The next day, Carrico drove one of the youths around and had him identify countless acts of graffiti, Nelson said. “He was probably able to go through and solve dozens of them.”

Where the two 16-year-olds were found, there were several other cans of spray paint hidden “And we don’t even think it’s theirs, believe it or not,” Nelson said.

The two teens were placed in protective custody. One was released to his father that night and the other was booked at the juvenile facility at the regional jail and was later released to his parents.

Some two weeks earlier, a 19-year-old man from Lyle, Jones William Thomas, was arrested for tagging. He is accused of spray painting what looks like the letters “DB” on the property of the Odd Fellows, Petite Provence, Cornerstone Automotive, and The Dalles Chronicle van.

“We’re thrilled that these guys are done,” The Dalles Police Capt. Steve Baska said. “We’ve got a nice little town where we don’t want it all painted up. It’s not like they’re artistic.

“It looks like a bunch of third graders got together and said, ‘Let’s mess this up.’” However, Baska cautioned that other youths arrested for tagging late last year – covering the town with the word “boo” — were back at it the next day. “We’re hoping that doesn’t happen this time,” he said.

Baska said the police figured two main groups were tagging, and “we got two of the main groups.”

One of the teens detained Friday had a record for prior property crimes.