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Punta Gorda businesses, property vandalized with recurring symbols

Posted at 2:33 PM, Mar 23, 2022
and last updated 2022-03-23 14:33:00-04

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — One business owner is speaking out after their parking garage was vandalized with a series of graffiti tags.

Those tags, which display the words "zero" and "frog" have started popping up more frequently around Charlotte County.

"It’s definitely disturbing and aggravating that this is continuing to happen and Punta Gorda is a lot of murals and cultural things, old town stuff that you just don’t want to see defaced with graffiti," says Jackson Maymon, property manager of the Sunloft Center.

The building's parking garage is just one of several spots hit by those tags.

Surveillance video provided by Maymon shows two suspects making their way through the garage - vandalizing the walls, mirrors and signs with graffiti.

After watching the footage, Maymon decided to call Punta Gorda Police.

“They documented everything. They were pretty interested in the idea that somebody’s being brazen enough to do that kind of stuff in a pretty well lit area," says Maymon.

The police department wouldn't comment on the active investigation, but Maymon says he knew he wasn't the only target.

“The police officer that came, I did tell her - hey, there was one other spot that I heard in downtown that might have gotten hit as well," explains Maymon.

Not just one other spot, but several, and it has some community members speaking out.

“I definitely wouldn’t be hitting up people’s businesses to do stuff like that. If you want to do it on the public street, I wouldn’t care as much - but to do that to somebody’s business is kind of crappy.”

And as Maymon knows, that graffiti can lead to some serious headaches.

“The time, material, the labor hours that go into it, that all adds up…just not something we want to waste our time with," he says.