Police closer to finding grafitti vandals

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — Police are coming closer to finding the individual or individuals responsible for “tagging” a number of local businesses Wednesday night, and have sent an unknown article of evidence to the state police crime lab to be analyzed for fingerprints. The vandalisms occurred at the Gardner Police Department and several area businesses including Hannaford, Lukoil, Buenos, H & R Block, and the MART bus station, all of which were spray painted with the same three names in red and black spray paint. According to investigating Officer Jesse Gadarowski, police have been following several leads that may lead them to the person or people responsible, but are looking to the community for additional information. “We have an idea of who was doing it, it’s just become a matter of linking them all together,” said Mr. Gadarowski. “We have been looking into finding someone who may have seen them or could have known about the incident. We have leads and we are following them.” Although the vandalism was widespread, police Sgt. Kevin Minns said he considers citywide vandalism to be lower than it was in the past, and suspects that this latest incident was the act of a small group of individuals. “I think if you drive around the city you are going to see that (vandalism) is not as bad as it was years ago,” said Sgt. Minns. “I think it is cyclical; it really depends on the age groups and what they are into. I think what we had was a couple of kids that were out that night — these aren’t signs that we have seen in the past.” Although the damage was not necessarily extensive, Sgt. Minns said spray painting is a felony, and if caught the individuals responsible could face serious consequences. “The only thing this graffiti supports is the ego of the person doing it,” said Sgt. Minns. “It is a felony and it is always damaging because you are taking away from the appearance of these buildings and the city.” Police Lt. John Bernard also remains optimistic about the prospects of finding the party or parties responsible. “We are definitely trying to put something together,” said Lt. Bernard. “We have a piece of evidence ... which we are sending to the state police lab to see if we can pull a fingerprint off of it. We have been speaking to several people with information but we don’t have anything definitive yet. At this point we aren’t sure about where the information is going to take us.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 7/22/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 172)