Business owners vandalized with graffiti

Business owners in El Centro are dealing with a recent string of vandalism.

Graffiti has been popping up and around local shops and restaurants more these past few weeks.

A picture of the culprit was posted to social media on Tuesday.

In the picture a male can be seen spraying the wall with paint in broad daylight.

Facebook user Jose Beltran posted the picture on a neighborhood watch website saying his buddy’s shop had been tagged.

The wall where the vandal struck has since been painted over.

The owner of the paint shop did not want to speak on camera, saying that police asked him not to as they know who this person is and are opening a case on him.

Business owner Pete Salcedo is just across the street and has his own way with dealing with graffiti.

“When we first were graffitied, it would take us a couple of days to do it, but we found out as time went on if we cover it up immediately and then they would leave us alone for a while,” explained Salcedo.

Salcedo says he thinks using this tactic helps because the graffiti is not looked at for long or glorified.

“Past years we had a couple occasions where we had heavily graffiti, a lot. So call the police, they like to know about it just to see if there is some affiliation with some gangs that they know of that may have done this,” added Salcedo.

We have reached out to the El Centro Police Department but they were not available for comment.