While the NYPD Vandals Squad never caught Banksy (the department's stencil-making white whale), it doesn't mean they've been dormant. Last night, the NYPD announced that "plain-clothed members of the Transit Bureau's City-wide Vandal's Task Force" had arrested two men for tagging a subway car yesterday.
According to the police, Sgt. Jimmy Conwell, Det. Christopher Diaz and P.O. Anthony D'Ascanio were patrolling the Jamaica Avenue and 111th Street subway station just after midnight on Saturday, January 11.
...they observed two individuals seated on a subway bench in close proximity of fresh graffiti vandalism on a 'J' train car. As the officers approached, Detective Diaz observed a knap sack with spray paint cans inside next to a 19 year old suspect, identified as Tommy Martinez, who attempted to close the bag to conceal its contents.
Det. Diaz also observed a 21 year old suspect, later identified as Jeremy Cautin, wearing one green latex glove and a gray spray paint can sticking out of his left jacket pocket. Upon further investigation, it was determined that Cautin acted as a lookout while Martinez spray painted the word "FEAL" with black spray paint (10 feet wide a 3 1/2 feet high) on an MTA Subway train car.
The NYPD included a photograph of the incriminating graffiti-making instruments.
Martinez, a Brooklyn resident, was charged with criminal mischief in the third-degree, making graffiti, possession of a graffiti instrument, and criminal trespass. Cautin, of Queens, was busted for graffiti complaints from earlier in the week; the NYPD tells us he tagged "RRR" and was charged with criminal mischief in the third-degree, making graffiti, possession of a graffiti instrument, and criminal trespass as well.
Spraying paint on a subway car is still a serious offense in de Blasio's New York.
