Drive down just about any street and you'll see it on buildings, junction boxes and signs.
It's graffiti and it's not just a nuisance or a form of art or a tag from gangs...it is a crime with sometimes severe penalities.
One local business owner says he's had enough and wants the city to do something about the damage he's received to his business on the e-way.
Eddie Wynn owns Texas Tire and Tube on the E-Way, and says he's received thousands of dollars in damages over the last few years from graffiti on the sides of his buildings and structures.
"Real often, we come down here and we have new graffiti on our property," said Wynn. "I'd like to see us pay some attention to this stuff and catch some of them, and when they're caught, i'd like to see them prosecuted and actually put in jail or maybe make them pay for this stuff. But they can't just continue to destroy people's property."
Just last week, Mayor Paul Harpole stopped by to document the damage here. The mayor addressed graffiti a number of times in his campaign and after last night's hit to Eddie's business, he wants to ramp up efforts to curb the damage and catch the culprits. And he thinks starting a city wide volunteer committee is the start.
"Well, I think the city will need some help, categorizing and cataloging what it is and begin to clean it up. Then have people help monitor it and if it come back, go back and clean it up again. But at the same time, we find spots where police can help monitor it, put up cameras, I think we've got to uuse some out of the box ideas to try and get this fixed," added Harpole.
Graffiti starts as a class B misdemanor with less than $500 in damage punishable with a $2,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail. A Class A misdemeanor, up to $1500 in damage is a $4,000 fine and up to a year in jail and the felony charges start at more than $1,500 in damage, carrying up to a $10,000 fine and up to 2 years in jail. And police say they do take it seriously.
"It's still a crime, it's something we need to pay attention to and we need to catch these people as often as we can. The law considers this a very serious crime and it's something police administration have talked about in the past, talked about way to deal with it and as time goes by, it'll continue to be looked into," according to Sgt. Brent Barbee with the Amarillo Police Department.
Eddie Wynn says if anyone's caught on his property, he will press charges. Last night's hit is estiamted at a couple thousand dollars in damages...and he says he'll try to avoid passing those costs on to his customers.
