Updated: Graffiti Spray Paint Cans Found on Vasona Dam in Los Gatos

Santa Clara County Parks and Santa Clara Valley Water District volunteer Dave Lane turned in four graffiti spray paint cans Thursday at the Los Gatos Police Operations Building.

Lane found the cans the afternoon of Thursday July 18 in the back of the Vasona Dam on the University Avenue side in Los Gatos, near the Creekside Sports Complex.

Los Gatos/Monte Sereno police officer Todd Fleming took the evidence and will investigate the crime.

Lane also brought graffiti spray paint cans to the POB on June 27.

"One, it's dangerous that they're doing it because if they fall in the reservoir, I learned that what's under the water is really mossy and they can't climb out of the dam," he told Fleming during a brief police report intake inside the POB.

Lane said the graffiti left on the dam walls has to now be removed by the SCVWD.

He's taken pictures of all the graffiti that's been painted around the dam structure.

According to LGMSPD police records, on June 30 two officers stopped two juveniles at 2:55 a.m. who admitted having cans that were going to be used to spray paint graffiti, Lane said.

Lane is hoping the vandals left fingerprints on the cans to help police catch them.

Fleming said he would speak to officers who handled the earlier incident. He said the new evidence brought in on Thursday could be added as a supplement to that earlier crime.

Fleming explained Vasona Lake County Park is under the jurisdiction of the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department and county rangers can go out and take a crime report.

Lane is worried about graffiti vandalism leading to other more serious crimes such as gang activity. He reported Scotts Valley is apparently being tagged by members of the Norteño gang leaving their ugly markings on utility boxes and other public places.

"I'm concerned that Vasona, at some point, the gangs will come in, see the graffiti and think, 'Oh, it's OK to graffiti, so we're going to start ... We're going to tag everything ... innocent people can end up getting hurt," he said.

Fleming lamented the high financial cost of the crime using thousands of dollars to clean up.

For the past six months, Los Gatos has been tagged, particularly around bridges necessitating the repainting of entire large structures requiring a couple of workers all day taxing the municipal budget, Fleming added. "It's an eyesore."

San Jose's graffiti problem is also worsening, with large tags being left around highways 280 and 87, Fleming said.

"It's getting worse and worse and worse. It's probably due to the lack of police officers. They're so short-staffed. You can just see it. It's spider webbing. It's more and more and more. It's pretty sad. It's unfortunate," Fleming said.

The crime is also dangerous for the perpetrators due to the locations they choose to leave the tags such as freeway overhangs.

Fleming recounted a recent incident with a tagger slipping and falling to his death after trying to graffiti in a freeway overhang.