ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A graffiti vandal strikes in downtown St. Petersburg leaving a block tagged with his signature. One of at least three business hit was the Florida Holocaust Museum.
“He tags the wall, he puts his marker away and looks to see if he marked it," said Michael Marano, co-owner of the Emerald Bar, as he points at the surveillance video flashing across a monitor.
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“It’s just disrespectful," he said, "We welcome everybody in here. For someone to make more work for the staff to clean up…”
The video from Wednesday morning shows the stranger in a hoodie walk out of the bathroom, then pull out what appears to be a marker and drags it across the wall.
“Cowardliness. To do it and be sneaky about it and just disrespectful," Marano said.
Inside the bathroom, staff discover more vandalism.
“It looks like it says 'asleep',” said Marano about the tag.
This same graffiti appeared on the window of Vlvt Salon two doors down.
“It was the same graffiti on every building and the Holocaust [museum] over and over," he said.
St. Pete Police say three of the four walls of the museum got marked.
“I don’t know it boggles my mind I can’t imagine who would do such a thing," said Marano.
He believes the guy who tagged his bar is behind it all but police are still reviewing the video before they link him to the crime.
“I guess you could say we got lucky," he said, "If he would have never tagged the wall we wouldn’t have known who he was.”
In a city known for its beautiful murals this business owner is asking for help to find the person he believes is responsible for spreading such ugliness.
