ANAHEIM : Boy Rewarded for Reporting Vandals

Joel Perez was walking home from school in September when he spotted several men spray-painting graffiti on a wall, and it made him angry.

So angry, in fact, that the 10-year-old ran home and called police, who arrived in time to arrest the vandals. By his action, he will become the first juvenile to receive a reward under the city’s 2-year-old graffiti removal program. He will receive $500 at tonight’s City Council meeting.

“I didn’t like that they were doing that to a church and that they were spray painting private property,” the soft-spoken fourth-grader said in an interview Monday. He said he had no idea at the time that he would get a reward and it was not his motivation for calling police.

“In my old neighborhood (in another part of Anaheim), we had a lot of graffiti there and I didn’t like living there,” he said. “I don’t want this neighborhood to be like that.”

His mother, fearing retaliation, has asked that the specifics of the graffiti incident not be revealed because the vandals do not know that Joel tipped off the police.

Three men in their late teens and early 20s were arrested at the church and were recently convicted of misdemeanor malicious mischief. They were ordered to pay fines and restitution in excess of $1,000 each and placed on probation.

Carolyn Griebe, coordinator of the city’s anti-graffiti program, said the three were not gang members but “taggers”--vandals who draw graffiti for no reason except personal gratification.

She said 12 adults have received rewards for turning in graffiti vandals, but child informants have been rare. Informants only receive rewards if their information leads to an arrest and conviction.

“I don’t know why so few children have called, but I guess the same thing could be said about adults,” Griebe said. “With so much graffiti in this city, you would think we would have had more calls. But I guess people either don’t see it, they don’t care or they don’t want to get involved.”

Joel said he will be use part of his reward money to buy a Nintendo video game. “Then I’m going to put the rest in the bank,” he said. “My mom said I should save it.”