Parents Get Tagged With $38,000 Bill : Graffiti: Effort to make couple pay for sons’ actions is the first test of an MTA program designed to fight a $20-million-a-year vandalism problem.

The parents were surprised when their two teen-age sons were arrested on suspicion of vandalizing almost two dozen Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses.

But not as surprised as when they got the bill from the MTA for $38,000, authorities said.

“They really didn’t make a comment” when told that they would have to make restitution after their sons’ arrest Tuesday, said Lt. Tim Murphy of the MTA Transit Police. “They were in a state of shock.”

The demand for restitution was the first the MTA has made of parents of juveniles who vandalize buses. MTA officials said they are acting under a newly adopted program aimed at curbing a $20-million-a-year vandalism problem.

“We’re trying to get the message to parents that they are responsible for the behavior, especially criminal behavior, of their kids,” said Transit Police Chief Sharon Papa. “We want them to know that you can be held accountable.”

But Papa said she is uncertain whether the juveniles’ parents, who live in a graffiti-scarred neighborhood near Downtown, can pay for the damages. The parents could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

“This is a kind of test case,” Papa said. “If the parents can’t afford to pay, then maybe the judge will add more community service time” as part of the youths’ punishment.

“We’re not going to squeeze blood from a turnip,” Murphy added. “If parents get the message that their kids are out of control and that they’ve got a bill over their head because they haven’t paid enough attention to them, then we think we’ll be successful.”

The two juveniles, ages 14 and 16, were arrested Tuesday morning when MTA police officers served a search warrant at their home in the 1100 block of Angelina Street. The search culminated an investigation launched several weeks ago. The boys are being held at Eastlake Juvenile Hall on felony vandalism charges.

MTA police believe the two youths are responsible for more than $100,000 in damage to as many as 100 buses during the last year, but Murphy said there is only enough evidence “to prove without a doubt” that they tagged 22 buses in the last six weeks.

The two are believed to have used engraving knives, drill bits and rocks wrapped in heavy duty sandpaper to etch gang names and symbols on bus windows and metal surfaces, which officials say is a more serious problem than painted-on graffiti. In addition to the engraving tools, police said they found several markers and about a dozen cans of paint in the boys’ house and an adjoining garage.

“We believe these two are among the most active taggers in Los Angeles County as far as buses go,” Murphy said, adding that the 16-year-old had paint on his hands at the time of his arrest.

Even so, the boys’ parents, who are cooperating with police, found it hard to believe that their children could be responsible for such destruction.

“They were very adamant about the innocence of their kids,” Murphy said. “They said their sons were good kids. They were very surprised.”

Dieter Hemsing, an MTA maintenance supervisor, said that the two boys began targeting buses within the last eight to 10 months.

“They just went nuts on us,” he said. “They use our buses for murals and to communicate with other gangs.”

Hemsing said gang etchings and engravings on the windows and metal surfaces of buses have increased dramatically over the last year, in part, officials believe, because of the MTA’s aggressive removal of painted graffiti. Etching, he said, is far more costly to remove.

“It costs $200 to replace one window panel,” Hemsing said. “The people of Los Angeles are paying the bill for it.”