Here’s a tip. If you are in court facing felony charges for burglary and graffiti, and the judge offers to let you off the hook as long as you stop tagging innocent people’s property, put down the spray can and take up another form of public artistic expression. Like chalk drawing on the sidewalk.
Otherwise you’ll wind up like Erik Rhay’s in Eugene. Rhay’s insists he is not a “real criminal” but he’ll still be spending five years in a “real prison.” He was busted for burglary and vandalism a year ago but the judge gave him leniency with his sentence, provided he stop tagging local businesses (victims estimate that Rhay’s work has cost tens of thousands of dollars in damage over the years).
Well, attorneys proved that Rhay just couldn’t stop with the aerosol can assault and so a judge sent him packing for five years.
How’d they catch him? He failed to appear in court as part of his parole. When cops went to his house they found boxes of spray paint and photos of recent tags.
Genius.
