A quiet neighbourhood in downtown Newmarket was the target of inappropriate graffiti as vandals spray-painted images of genitalia on the road and trees overnight.
A resident spent part of their day trying to erase the paint on Tecumseth Street with a high-powered pressure washer on May 7. They had quite a tough time removing it, applying two to three applications of soap and water.
“It’s embarrassing,” they said. “It’s a cute little neighbourhood, and we’re not going to leave it like this.”
The resident spoke with NewmarketToday on the condition of anonymity over fear of retribution.
“We live on a quiet street, and it seems to get targeted because they feel like nobody is watching,” said the resident.
The neighbours expressed anger, disappointment and frustration, however, had to feel fortunate their vehicles were not painted. Many have cameras on their house for a 360-degree view of the area.
“I should be working right now, but I have to clean inappropriate images on the road,” said the resident. “I’m sure the town would have come and done it.”
Vandals also spray painted ‘Crackheads for L’ on the street. The graffiti attack has garnere reaction on a community Facebook group, and includes posted video surveillance that shows a girl painting on a road as a boy watches her. Commenters expressed disappointment about the occurrence, while others were disgusted and furious.
“This is not the easiest thing to clean up; spray paint on asphalt,” said the resident. “I had to buy $50 worth of equipment just to do it myself.”
York Regional Police was made aware of the incident at about noon. They reached out to the developer of the thread on Facebook to file an online police report.
“Once the report is generated, it will be assigned to an investigator,” said Const. James Dickson. “We want to encourage our partners within the communities to report things like this. Something like mischief can be taken with a call taker, online with a reporting tool or anonymous through Crime Stoppers. If we are not aware of the incident, it can not be properly investigated.”
Dickson said mischief to property is a criminal offence and graffiti would constitute mischief. Depending on the type of damage, it can be considered mischief under $5,000 or over.
“Depending on the owner of the property, in this cases it seems to be the Town of Newmarket, and their wishes in terms of proceeding, someone can be potentially be arrested and face criminal charges or we also have options in terms of either youth or adult divergence programs,” said Dickson.
The resident said police have been in the area before for other issues. In one instance, they said people have tried to enter cars, checking if doors are unlocked. In another instance, they said somebody entered their backyard. They had to put up a fence to deter people from entering their shed.
“All of a sudden, there was somebody in our shed, trying to find some sort of tools,” said the resident. “The shed was locked, so they couldn’t get anything, but it is alarming to wake up in the morning and see a (security camera) notification on your phone that there is a strange man in our backyard. We went to the cops.”
NewmarketToday did not receive a response to a request for comment from the Town of Newmarket by publication deadline.
