Summerside Police Services would very much like to know the answer.
“TeKOE” is the calling card of a graffiti tagger who has been painting his or her signature on private and public property all over Summerside and Charlottetown. with sightings in Moncton, N.B., and Halifax, N.S., as well.
Many of the tags seem to clustered in the Summerside area however. Police believe there are at least 15 in and around the city.
Two smaller TeKOE tags were recently scrawled on new dumpsters delivered to Cassandra Noonan’s new business, Everyday Clearance Centre on Water Street.
She is not impressed, to say the least.
“Hopefully he or she is caught,” she said.
The tags at her business are relatively minor and not on the building itself, so she considers herself lucky. But she is concerned about the vandal returning.
“If they ever did anything major, it wouldn’t be good. Especially with all the money I spent on my signage,” she said.
Other property owners have not been as fortunate as Noonan and have had to spend a lot of money to hide or remove the tags.
Summerside Police and P.E.I. Crime Stoppers recently partnered to put out a call for information, with a potential reward, for information in this case. That offer is still open and tips can be passed along to www.peicrimestoppers.com or to the tip line 1-800-222-8477.
Summerside Police believe whoever has been leaving the TeKOE tags has been doing so for three or four years, but became much more prolific this year.
“This has been the worse year,” said Chief Dave Poirier.
“This year alone there’s probably several thousand dollars worth of damage done to private property. It’s unwanted and the business community is getting quite upset.”
Poirier added that some relevant information has been provided to police and they hope to make an arrest soon.
Graffiti is something of a pet peeve of Poirier’s, who, along with people doing community service or volunteers, has spent a lot of his own time helping businesses clean it up or remove it.
“I don’t like the looks of it,” said Poirier.
“If they have permission to do it – fine. If they don’t – it’s criminal and unwanted.”
Summerside Police have also put out a call to all businesses in Summerside asking them to consider spending the cash to remove any graffiti on their property. They’re calling it Operation Graffiti Wipeout.
Research presented to police has shown that if graffiti is covered up or removed quickly after being placed, it can discourage further vandalism, said Poirier.
When Noonan spoke with the Journal Pioneer this week she was unsure what she was going to do about the TeKOE tags on her property.
If she does remove them, she said, she sincerely hopes she won’t have to do it again anytime soon.
@JournalPMacLean
