Crime & Safety

Police Probe Link Between Burglary and Graffiti

Spray paint stolen during a shed burglary may have been used to create graffiti on a sidewalk, house, mailbox and road signs in Lawrence Township's Eldridge Park neighborhood, according to police.

Graffiti found in several places, including on a house, on one street in the Eldridge Park neighborhood of Lawrence Township appears to be related to a nearby burglary in which cans of spray paint were among the items stolen from a shed, township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry said today (Thursday, May 31).

Ubry said the graffiti found Wednesday (May 30) on Alcazar Avenue included profanity and symbols created using black and blue spray paint. Township police are investigating whether some of the graffiti is “possibly gang-related,” he said.

It was 8:15 a.m. Wednesday when police were notified of the break-in to the storage shed at the Eggerts Crossing Village apartment complex in the 100 block of Johnson Avenue.

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Ubry said black and blue spray paint and about $25 worth of copper pipe fittings were stolen after a shed window was forced open.

The burglary took place sometime between 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and about 8 a.m. on Wednesday, he said.

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The graffiti on Alcazar Avenue – about a block from the apartment complex – was found a short time after the burglary was reported, with additional graffiti discovered later in the day.

Ubry said graffiti was found on a sidewalk, a house, a mailbox and road signs on Alcazar Avenue.

Most of the graffiti was power-washed away Wednesday. Some, however, had not yet been removed and was still visible this morning on two “Road Hump” signs on Alcazar Avenue.

The 15 mph speed limit was blacked out on each sign. Profanity covered one of the signs, while “Go Fast” had been painted on the other.

While officers were searching the neighborhood for additional graffiti Wednesday, they recovered a bicycle that had been abandoned on Hazelhurst Avenue, two blocks from Alcazar Avenue, Ubry said. He said police are working to identify the bicycle’s owner.

Anyone with information about the burglary or the graffiti is asked to call police at (609) 896-1111.


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