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Pocono News Section
Police Have Vandalism Suspects
Police Have Vandalism Suspects - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 5:04PM EST
Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 @ 05:04pm EST
EAST STROUDSBURG - Police believe they know who was involved in a Pocono vandalism spree. Two weeks ago vandals tagged dozens of homes and businesses in East Stroudsburg.
Officers say they believe it was part of a juvenile graffiti ring. While they haven't made any arrests yet, some of the graffiti victims were happy to hear the news.
Every swipe of paint and every stroke of the brush tells graffiti vandals their work is not welcome and will not stay in East Stroudsburg.
Volunteer painter Michael Jones said, "There are still some spots that need fixing because if we took too much off it would have gone into the next layer of paint."
"To see it in very short order completely ruined, it was heartbreaking," said Michelle Coulter of Henryville.
The vandalism has actually had a surprising benefit. It's inspired more people than ever before to pick up paint brushes and get involved.
Chris Francz of Shawnee on Delaware said, "I wouldn't have been here if that incident hadn't happened, and maybe some good will actually come out of this."
Francz drove by the mural every week for years. He never thought about volunteering. Then he saw how the damage impacted the community and wanted to do something positive.
He said, "I don't know what the motivation was for them to put that kind of energy into destroying something that somebody else created."
Volunteers will meet every Wednesday and Friday morning through the summer.
"This is gonna change some of the style of artwork that's already on the wall but for the most part it's going right on track," said Jones.
He and other volunteers have a message for the vandals. "Maybe if they came out and helped we could make them into artist and not vandals."
Francz added, "Well we have more paint right here. Plenty of things to work on. Let's go."
Police say the vandals who defaced East Stroudsburg may also be involved with spray painting crimes in the Paradise Valley area.
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