San Diego Union-Tribune
Security officers for the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System detained five teenage boys during the past two weeks for 277 graffiti tags that caused $25,000 in damage, transit officials said.
San Diego police cited all five, but one was arrested because he was on probation. The others were released to their parents.
The teens were caught tagging MTS property in San Diego and National City, including trolleys, electrical boxes, bus stop signs and hand rails. They used spray paint, markers and ballpoint pens, MTS spokesman Rob Schupp said Wednesday.
A county database that tracks graffiti was used in the investigation. All cities in the county, the county government, MTS, North County Transit District and the Port of San Diego use the system.
“This bust shows that the regional graffiti program we launched last year is having a tremendous impact,” county Supervisor Greg Cox said.
Last September the Superior Court of California ordered a juvenile to pay the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) $14,710 in restitution for damage caused by graffiti on MTS property. He was also sentenced to one year in a short term offenders program. The vandal’s graffiti was identified by Graffiti Tracker, a web-based system that helps identify, track, prosecute and seek restitution from graffiti vandals.