The NYPD found a tagger who had been hitting spots in Queens with help from Instagram—and then bragged about the arrest on Facebook. Peter Podsiadlo, a 32-year-old heavy equipment operator for the Glen Cove Department of Public Works, was arrested in Nassau County on Wednesday for tagging "SEMP" on the Cross Island Parkway and the Clearview and Long Island Expressways.

In March, Podsiadlo was arrested for possession of graffiti instruments on Merrick Boulevard near 224th Street, and the police say that when he was stopped, "he led officers from the 105th Precinct in Queens Village on a foot chase through numerous residential backyards. He was charged with Obstructing Governmental Administration and 13 counts of felony Criminal Mischief."

Then, the cops decided to do a little online sleuthing. From the NYPD:

Following his release from Queens Criminal Court, police tracked Podsiadlo’s work through “#semp516” on social media and his Instagram moniker “SEMP516,” which has been deleted since his most recent arrest on Wednesday. The photos he continued to post of his work led police to the computer in his Glen Cove house, and to the many incidents of him making graffiti and committing criminal mischief dating back some four years.

He has been implicated in 10 additional incidents and charged with 23 more counts of vandalism.

A police source told the Post, "He’s one of the more prodigious taggers in the city. This guy was asking for it, advertising it so blatantly online."

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is pretty happy, declaring, "Graffiti is a constant battle. It’s one of the issues I’m going to be focusing on. My sense is that graffiti is growing in the city now again. And, as a city, we need to basically take it on because that’s the first sign of urban decay."

The NYPD's Facebook post also explains why Bratton wants to crack down on graffiti: "Such crime has been deemed a prime concern by Bratton, an ardent supporter of the 'Broken Windows' theory of policing: The idea that small infractions left unaddressed lead to larger, systemic societal issues. More serious than the economic ramifications associated with cleaning up graffiti, for instance, is the insidious perception of disorder, contempt for the law, fear and lawlessness that the tagging image leaves behind."

According to the department, they have seen a "15% increase in graffiti-related complaints citywide so far this year through last Sunday, from 4,369 in 2013 to 4,911 complaints in 2014... Similarly, the number of individual suspects arrested for making graffiti also has jumped 11% in that time span, from 692 last year to 771 so far this year."