Gotcha

The cost of removing graffiti in Torrevieja is enormous. The council spend over 300,000€ per year cleaning it off and then repairing the damage caused.

Although this is an ongoing battle, with the help of a graphologist, the police in Torrevieja have managed to catch one of the individuals responsible. The man described as S.T.A. used various pseudonyms; "Sadow", "Bruto" and "XPLTS". His work can be seen on the paseo Vista Alegre, paseo de la Libertad, Los Marineros and the paseo marítimo Juan Aparicio. In fact his graffiti can be seen all over the town on both public and private buildings and on walls. The estimated damage he has caused amounts to over 12,000€.

The twenty year old, who comes from Madrid, has lived in Torrevieja for four years. When the police stopped and detained him, they found 20 cans of spray paint of various colours in his car. Spray paint is not cheap so he must have spent several hundred Euros at least on the stuff over the four years.

The police have a mammoth task on to try and catch the people responsible for graffiti in Torrevieja because almost every street seems to have been targeted. Whilst Bigastro is no where near as bad, the areas of wasteland by the service road are particularly affected.

Like the damage to the service boxes, graffiti is mindless vandalism that costs the local tax payers a lot of money. Let's face it, there are more creative ways to get yourself noticed than spraying your name on a wall - take up blogging for example - it has certainly worked for me!