Texted Cell Phone Pics Nab Scratchiti Artist

In what has to be a new contender for the most contemporary crime story, a young man was arrested for making graffiti and three other charges after another rider on the N train in Astoria snapped shots of him on her cellphone scratching a window on the train and sending them into Crime Stoppers via text. The vandalism task force was able to connect the cellphone pics to 18-year-old Andrew Morello, who had previously been arrested this summer for tagging "Shelly" on a commercial vehicle in Queens. The NYPD delegated a Crime Stoppers line over the summer specifically for text messages and had previously arrested a driver whose license plate was captured after he hit a cyclist and left the scene of the accident.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Billy Parker in News on November 22, 2008 1:43 PM

Comments [rss]

suepart

good job! the "informant" deserves an award of merit for making the city a better place.

MrCow

tagging isn't art

Steven

Good job by the alert commuter. If you want to create art then do it on your OWN property.

Spirit of 76

[3] Who's the real loser, the person taking a picture or the guy who has nothing better to do than damage private property? As if subway fares aren't already high enough without assholes creating more problems.

A good penalty for scratchiti would be to turn it around on the vandal. You scratch something, the city scratches you. A nice tattoo on the forehead would be perfect. Say, a scarlet "V" for vandal or maybe "L" for loser.

JMH

There's a typo in the title of this article. It says "Artist" and I think what you meant to say was "Vandal" or something along those lines.

JacqueMehoff

ny1 says one calls 911, tell them you have a picture, a detective calls you back on how one sends in the photo tip. so the tipper probably sent a SMS text with pic attachment.

Snoopy

What is SMS? SadoMasochistic? I don't get the last S. Is it SeMaphoreSignaling? What?

goodcow

Too bad the iPhone can't do SMS. :(

cucarachita

Maybe we can catch the a-holes who have been putting racist (white supremacist manufactured) Obama stickers on the subways this way too.

ixvnyc

I am all for graffiti, but this crap is ugly, and this guy is really just a vandal, and not an artist.

Personally, I'd kick his ass on the spot, but I suppose having him arrested is good too.