Taggers caught in the act in Ocean Beach

A citizen saw several young men tagging a public handrail on Ocean Front Street and Del Monte Avenue on November 21 and called in a description of the men and their vehicle to the police.

According to officer D. Ellis, who was on the scene with two other officers and three squad cars, there were reportedly five perpetrators, thus spurring three police cars to respond.

One of the responding officers spotted the vehicle on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard a few minutes later and pulled them over on Voltaire Street, in front of Tiny's Tavern.

The three men were sitting on the sidewalk being questioned by the officers to see if they had gang affiliations. All the men were from the southeast City Heights area according to Officer Ellis. Several of the officers I talked to said they were pretty sure they were gang members.

The driver had no license and he was caught in possession of a marker. His car was impounded and he was arrested and put in the back of the squad car; the others were let go. The police took pictures of the others and if their faces match any warrants, they will be picked up. Officer Nguyen said they had all just turned 18.

There has been a rash of tagging of businesses and other public property in Ocean Beach during the past few months. Surfrider Pizza on Abbott had their windows tagged in bright green two days ago and it looks like the same tag from several months back that marked James Gang Printing on Bacon Street. Several palm trees all over O.B. were tagged with what looks like the same moniker.

Locals are taking pictures and sending them into the police in the hopes that they can match the tagging to the tagger.