FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Graffiti Tipster, 12, Gets $500 Reward

The city’s graffiti reward program is paying off for young citizens like 12-year-old Matt Clanton.

Matt is the city’s most recent recipient of a $500 reward, given to citizens who provide police tips about graffiti vandalism that lead to an arrest.

Police Capt. Bill De Nisi said it is usually difficult to nab graffiti offenders in the act. “But it’s helpful when you have 50,000 citizens out there and they pick up the phone and call us when they see something,” he said.

De Nisi said the reward system is “very effective in conjunction with everything else we’re doing to get graffiti out of our town.”

Offering the reward has encouraged people to pick up the phone and make that call to the Police Department. “It helps us if we can nail the kids in the act,” De Nisi said.

Matt, a fifth-grader, said he was walking near Roch Courreges Elementary School on Feb. 15 when he noticed two youths drawing graffiti on a storage shed and a door at the school. He said he told the boys to stop because they would get in trouble. They didn’t, so he called police. The vandalism amounted to more than $1,000 in damage.

“I go to that school and I knew the kids and I didn’t think it was right to do the graffiti,” he said. “It’s not good. It makes the school look ugly.”

Matt said he has no choice over what he can do with the reward money.

“I have to put it in the bank,” he said. “My mom won’t let me spend it.”