As far as Bonnie Voropaeff, owner of DLG Printing, at 435 San Benito St., is concerned, taggers who feel compelled to etch or spray paint their initials on someone’s else’s property, cannot be ignored and should be punished.
“If you ignore them then other taggers come along and add their initials and it just keeps getting worse,” she said as she pointed out a recent tag etched into one of the windows of her business. In the more than 30 years she has been in business, she said this is the first time her property had been vandalized.
Voropaeff noticed the scratches on the window on Tuesday, Oct. 25, while taking her evening walk around the block. Then she began to notice the same initials scratched into the windows of other businesses, including Irma’s Fashion, Wells Fargo Bank and the entryway door to upstairs rooms for rent. Also, three windows of the San Benito Arts Council were vandalized.
“I called the police, and then I called the HDA (Hollister Downtown Association) so they would send out information to other businesses so people could watch out,” she said. “And then I got in touch with Al Rowe (of Rowe Upholstery) because he works nights a lot of times, so he might watch out. They stopped at Irma’s, and the next one would have been Rowe’s, but he was probably working.”
Voropaeff said she called the police right away, but it was too late to reach the officer who investigates vandalism cases. She called again the next morning and the officer was at her place of business within the hour and took a report along with pictures. Then she took the police officer to each location to show where the other instances of vandalism had been done.
“They told me they would try to check the (city) cameras,” she said. “And I talked to Norma, next door at Cheap Seats, because she has a camera pointed at the alleyway. She’s supposed to check for me and see if she sees anything so we can turn it into the police department.”
Voropaeff said the first thing the investigator seemed concerned about was if someone were eventually arrested, would she be willing to press charges.
“I said ‘yes,’ because to fix something you have to replace it, and my concern is we have to watch out for one another and talk to the police when we need to,” she said. “There are other tags that are going on that aren’t in glass.”
Voropaeff took BenitoLink into the alley next to her business and pointed out numerous tags on fences, dumpsters, walls and doors, and then her own window.
“This was worse than graffiti because they actually etched it into glass,” she said. “If I could paint over it I would, but I can’t. Painting might cost $20, where that window would cost about $400 to replace. You figure that times five or six locations and you’re up to a couple thousand dollars. I don’t have an extra $400 to pay for a window. And I can’t claim it on my insurance because then the rates would increase.”
She said business owners had been told that when they spot graffiti they should call Mike Chambless, who is in charge of graffiti abatement for the city. Chambless was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
As Voropaeff took BenitoLink around to the different business, she spotted two new instances of vandalism that had not been there just the day before.
“Those are new, so this person is still doing it,” she said.
Lt. Dan Winn, of the Hollister Police Department, said vandalism can range from being a misdemeanor to a felony, depending on the amount of damage. He confirmed that the department will check the camera footage, but due to the overnight intense rains Thursday into Friday, resources had been temporarily pulled away to deal with flooding and downed tree limbs.
If nothing shows up on the footage, the police would need a witness, Winn said.
“Beyond that, there’s not much we can do,” he said.
Other than a dollar figure, which he did not have at hand, a hate crime quickly takes a case of vandalism from being a misdemeanor to a felony.
“If you’re talking about putting a swastika on a Jewish place of worship, that changes it to a different sort of crime,” he said. “There are federal instructions for that. In this case, it doesn’t appear to be anything of the sort. It’s just straight vandalism.”
Winn said punishment if a person is convicted of vandalism is on a case-by-case basis.
“It depends on the court, what deals have been made,” he said. “Taggers would normally receive a citation and fine if they’re a minor. They might spend some time in jail. Depending on the extent of it, it could be much greater. If it’s a misdemeanor, they could do up to a year in jail. That’s not common, though. But a felony could be time in a state institution.”
Winn said it’s difficult to estimate how much vandalism is being committed in Hollister or the cost of it because it often goes unreported, and many people incur the cost of clean-up or repairing the damage themselves.
Winn agreed with Voropaeff about taking action right away when the graffiti is spotted.
“In the tagging world, a lot of times when people see somebody else’s piece up, they’ll go and try and write over it or put theirs up next to it,” he said. “Whenever it’s out there it does seem to inspire more, so the sooner it’s cleaned up the less likely that will happen.”
Winn said that if the camera footage caught someone and it turns out to be an adult, the police department would put out a press release.
On Friday, Oct. 28, Voropaeff told BenitoLink that she had checked with the owner of Cheap Seats and was told that the view from the camera at that business was blocked and did not capture anything.
“The only thing I can do now is hope the city checks their cameras,” she said. “They paid for all those cameras for the rally to point down alleyways, so maybe they’ll see something.”
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