Based on a call from an alert citizen, Benicia police officers arrested four Vacaville residents for a felony graffiti / tagging incident that occurred on the 300 block of Warwick Drive. This is the latest in a series of graffiti related investigations that police hope will reduce the amount of graffiti incidents around Benicia.
At 2:23 am on Wednesday morning, Benicia police received a phone call from a resident on the 2000 block of Havenhill Drive reporting that three male subjects were walking around a car in the area. Responding officers located the vehicle - a 2005 white Toyota Corolla - parked in front of a residence but could not locate the three subjects. A check with the resident where the car was parked revealed that the car did not belong to them and they had not seen it before.
Officers then conducted surveillance on the car for about 40 minutes. At 3:03 am, officers saw four subjects return to the car and take off. Officers initiated a stop on the vehicle on the 100 block of Warwick Drive. Contacted where two adults and two juveniles, all from Vacaville. During the car stop, officers found 24 aerosol spray paint cans and two of the subjects had spray paint on their hands. A check of the area found graffiti spray painted on a 60' long retaining / sound wall on the 300 block of Warwick Drive that backs up to Highway 780. All four admitted their involvement in coming to Benicia to "tag" and to "tagging" the retaining wall (photos attached).
Since the estimated damage from the graffiti was in excess of $400, all were booked for felony vandalism charges. Those booked were:
1) Troy ORETA, 20 year old Vacaville resident and driver of the car; booked into the Solano County Jail for felony vandalism and an outstanding $500 misdemeanor warrant from Solano County;
2) Joseph CAUDLE, 18 year old Vacaville resident; booked into the Solano County Jail for felony vandalism.
3) Two 17 year old Vacaville residents; booked into the Solano County Juvenile Hall for felony vandalism, minors in possession of aerosol container, and one of the 17 years old was also booked for violation of their Solano County juvenile probation.
"Once again, a citizen provided the call that led to an arrest of those committing crimes in our community," Lt. Mike Daley said. "Our officers did a great job of surveillance on the car and eventually apprehending these suspects. Generally our tagging and graffiti crimes have been committed by youths who live in our town. This is the first case in a while in which we had someone from a neighboring town come here to tag. Hopefully this arrest and the prosecution of these four will deter similar events in our city."
Benicia police are looking through incidents to see if the markings are similar to other incidents in town. In addition, Benicia police will be providing Vacaville police with information on the case to compare to incidents in their city. For information on this press release, contact Lt. Daley at (707)590-4259. Anyone with information about graffiti crimes or tagging in Benicia is asked to call School Resource Officer Sergio Cruz at (707)746-4253 or Crime Stoppers at (707)644-STOP (7867).
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