Charges pending in graffiti rampage

PALMER — How much damage can one man with a big, fat marker do in the course of an evening?

Apparently a lot.

Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney said most of his morning Friday was spent responding to a slew of vandalism calls in downtown.

A large black marker was used to write similar sentiments on two vehicles, a stop sign, a street light, Klondike Mike’s Saloon, the human resources company HRC, Bishop’s Attic and North Star Animal Hospital.

“All pretty much in a straight line” through town, Turney said.

He said the suspect wasn’t very hard to find. One of those businesses had a security camera rolling when he did the deed. The man on the tape happened to be someone police knew.

“We figured out who it is, went straight to his house,” Turney said. “He even wrote on his house.”

The sergeant didn’t want to give the suspect’s name for a couple of reasons — charges are pending and the investigation hasn’t wrapped up. One key piece of the investigation that is still outstanding are damage estimates from the businesses and vehicle owners.

As for what those charges will likely be, he said that’s up to the district attorney.

It’s likely that, taken as a whole, the damage adds up to a felony vandalism charge since it’s a felony to do more than $500 in malicious property damage. But if the district attorney decides to charge each act of graffiti as a separate crime, the suspect could face multiple misdemeanors.

Turney said he won’t know anything until he gets those estimates, which might take a few days.

“It’s a nice day and that’s probably the last thing people want to do on the third nice day of the summer,“ Turney said Friday.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.