It’s the same spray bottle to paint it on, and surprisingly, to take it off.
“The colour stuff is coming off pretty good, it’s just the black that’s not coming off at all,” said Josh Langdon, a Langford truck owner-operator.
But washing off massive graffiti tags from his fleet of trucks isn’t how Langdon wanted to spend his weekend.
“It’s really frustrating, not only does it cost time and money, but it takes time away from your family,” said Langdon.
But with a quick spray of a can, a stranger forced washing off graffiti, to be their Sunday family activity.
“We are cleaning off spray paint because someone actually put it on,” said Langdon’s young son Aahron.
And they’re not the only ones facing this kind of vandalism.
There have been a total of five arrests for graffiti in Langford just this last month. On May 5 at a bus stop on Station Avenue, two young girls were arrested for mischief related to graffiti. Two days later, another two 12-year-old girls were arrested for tagging The Brick on Jacklin Road. On May 8, a truck stop was also targeted by vandals, and even more recently, on May 23, West Shore RCMP arrested a 26-year-old man also for illegal tagging on public property.
“It’s exhausting,” said Langdon.
“This has happened three times in the past five months. To show up to work and have your vehicles vandalized like this is just senseless.”
Truck owner-operators own their own vehicles and are contracted out to typically long hours.
And this rash of graffiti has added hundreds of extra hours and senseless added expenses.
“I would hope they realize the damage they’re doing,” said Bob Lamb, another local truck owner-operator.
“Most of these guys don’t get a paycheque, they’re owner-operators, so everything that cuts into their bottom line is taking money off the table. It can put a guy over the edge.”
Police have an active investigation ongoing and believe two people are involved but have no description of the suspect. Something, the truck companies hope to change.
“I installed motion-activated cameras with night vision, so hopefully if anybody does come back we’ll capture them on camera,” said Langdon.
Kori Sidaway
