Taggers Busted

Excerpt:

News | Southern Vermont
Railyard Spray Paint Bandits Busted

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Two Hartford men suspected of spray painting elaborate graffiti murals, some of which included large cartoon-like characters, on as many as a hundred railroad cars and more than a dozen bridge abutments this year alone are now facing vandalism charges.

Brian Dow, 23, and Daniel Barmore, 25, pleaded innocent Tuesday to a felony count each of committing unlawful mischief with damages over a thousand dollars. Dow also entered an innocent plea to an accompanying misdemeanor charge of unlawful trespass.

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The officers walked up to the pair in the rail yard and took them into custody without incident.

Back at the police station, Pedro said he searched Dow’s cell phone, which along with Dow’s boots was covered in yellow paint droplets, and he found photographs of the stylized murals the railroad had reported — including large Popeye characters and frequent images of a large “green blobby ghost” in many of the examples.

A search of Barmore’s cell phone turned up a text message saying, “I paint like every other day. Got over 100 trains already this year and like 20 walls or so,” according to the affidavit, which said Barmore also referenced painting train cars at locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine.

Police counted 16 paint cans inside the backpack along with packages of blue nitrile gloves, and a further search of the trunk of Dow’s car turned up another 87 cans of paint, according to the police report.