By Caleb Hutton
A man was caught “black-handed” spray painting a wall inside the Alamo apartment complex this week, police said.
A witness saw a man, later identified as Robin Miles Blau, 36, tagging property on East Maple late Monday, Nov. 12, said Bellingham police spokesman Mark Young.
Police scoured the area and saw a door ajar at the 421 E. Maple St. apartment complex. They could hear someone spray painting inside.
The officer caught Blau in the act and grabbed the black spray can from him, Young said. Similar squiggly tags — spelling “LERKS” — were found in the neighborhood, on property owned by the U.S. Postal Service, Puget Sound Energy, a gas station and the apartments.
In all, the estimated cost to paint over or otherwise fix the damaged property is $1,050.
Blau was booked into jail on suspicion of malicious mischief in the second degree, a class C felony.
Good.
I’m going to start carrying a can of spray paint with me to spray over all the gang tags I see during my walks.
There seems to be more tags than gangbangers; I guess that’s a good thing because I’d hate to have to chase after them.
By the way, a local artist has painted 2 murals at the same address; one of them is on the side of the apartment building – it’s a depiction of downtown Bellingham (including the Herald building), and the other mural is along the wall of the parking lot – it’s of trains and such (I didn’t get a good look at this one).
Totally worth seeing.