Man Accused Of Tagging Burbank Parks He Was Paid To Keep Graffiti-Free
BURBANK (CBSLA.com) — A man has been accused of tagging public parks in Burbank he was paid to keep graffiti-free.
Enrique Medrano, 53, was arrested Thursday on burglary, fraud, and vandalism charges.
Police said the ex-employee of Graffiti Protective Coatings defaced various parks more than 100 times and got cash to clean it up.
Medrano reportedly billed the city $2,200.
"This is vandalism. Obviously he was doing it for the furtherance of his career," said Sgt. Darin Ryburn of the Burbank Police Department.
The graffiti removal company, which is paid $100,000 a year by Burbank, said it discovered discrepancies with Medrano's work orders at the same time police noticed certain parks were hit multiple times.
Graffiti Protective Coatings released a statement about the incident saying, "We have zero tolerance for this behavior and as soon as we learned of the situation we terminated his employment."
The company said it would not charge the city the thousands of dollars Medrano cost them.
KCAL9's Andrea Fujii confronted the suspect outside his North Hollywood home on Friday, but he claimed he didn't speak English.
A woman later came to the door and said, "What does he have to say for doing something like that… allegedly? Nothing really. Bye."
Medrano was released from police custody after he posted bond.
He'll return to court in December.
