Volunteers Help Police Catch 4 Graffiti Suspects

With the help of a citizen stakeout team, officers arrested four teen-age taggers as they spray-painted a business complex wall early Saturday morning, Los Angeles police said.

William Revolorio, 19, and three juveniles, ages 15, 16 and 17, were arrested on suspicion of vandalism after a four-hour stakeout of a building at Rinaldi Street and Tampa Avenue by 14 members of the Volunteer Surveillance Team, said Officer Roger Ruggiero. Police did not release the suspects’ hometowns.

At 3:45 a.m. the volunteers saw a pickup truck stop behind the building and watched as four youths carrying aerosol cans spray-painted 3- and 4-foot letters on the wall, police said. The volunteers used hand-held radios to alert the patrol officers, who surrounded the truck just as the youths began to leave.

The Volunteer Surveillance Team was established in March, 1992, and includes more than 50 volunteers who conduct stakeout operations for police in the Devonshire Division in the northwest San Fernando Valley. Police have made more than 80 arrests--mainly for drug offenses and vandalism--with the team’s help.