Darren Coyne
A South Lismore business owner is offering a cash reward to whoever brings this graffiti vandal ‘in by the ear’ to apologise.
Garden Centre and Collectables owners David and Anna were furious to discover the tag on their recently painted wall on Saturday morning.
The ‘artist’ also tagged the Station Hotel, Norco, and a small building adjacent to the railway station, all located along Union Street.
The three businesses have since removed the unsightly tags, leaving David wondering who will clean up the railway station building.
“Our mayor Jenny Dowell often urges business owners to clean graffiti off their buildings so I hope the council will also act quickly, or the state government.’
Tagging is an ongoing problem for local businesses.
And despite one school of thought that suggests street murals often remain untouched, some vandals obviously have no respect for actual talent.
A business in North Lismore recently had an impressive mural painted on its building by a street artist, only to have it tagged within days.
The most recent attacks were reported to police, and photographs sent, and David is hoping Facebook might also be useful in finding the culprit.
And he is prepared to pay.
‘The amount depends on the information but if someone brings the guy in by the ear and he apologises to me and the other companies then I’ll give them $100,’ he said.
Police themselves are not averse to using social media to solve crimes.
After finding a large number of stolen goods in Ballina last October, police tried to link the stolen property – laptops, iPhones, cameras and televisions to recent thefts but were unsuccessful.
But using social media proved to be the key to cracking the case.
‘Four out of the five laptops belonged to one family,’ police said in a Facebook post.
‘Two of the laptops were priceless. One stored 25 years of work while the other had a thesis for a Masters degree on it. You can imagine the elation felt by the owners when these were returned.
Police got lucky with the fifth laptop when the manager of a local electronics store recognized a photo on the hard drive after it was taken in to be charged.
In another recent case, a photograph posted to the Richmond LAC Facebook page reunited the owner of a camera that had been found.
David is hoping for similar success.
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