Camp Di Bocce employee stops graffiti taggers in the act
Police believe kids also hit other areas of town
By Jason Sweeney
Los Gatos Weekly-Times
Article Launched: 05/18/2007 03:56:27 PM PDT

Unidentified juveniles attempting to tag Campo Di Bocce fled the scene after being confronted by an employee at around 12:30 a.m. on May 12. The juveniles are suspected to be responsible for a trail of graffiti that runs down N. Santa Cruz Avenue to Village Liquors on Highway 9.

The Campo Di Bocce employee came outside after midnight that night and saw several juveniles writing graffiti on an outdoor cooler. The employee reported that between seven and eight juveniles were in the area.

"The call came in as a vandalism in progress and a possible fight," police Sgt. Tam McCarty said. Four patrol officers arrived on the scene within minutes, but the juveniles had fled in several directions, McCarty said.

Detective Sgt. Matt Frisby said that the letters "WSSJ" had been tagged on the cooler. "From my experience, that stands for West Side San Jose," he said.

The Campo di Bocce employee wanted a police report taken on the incident but did not wish to press charges. The graffiti has since been removed from Camp Di Bocce.However, the letters "ATK" remain spray painted in several locations on N. Santa Cruz Avenue. The letters were applied with yellow spray paint on a bus stop in front of the Los Gatos Shopping Center, on a trash can in front of Coldwell Banker and on a planter in front of Yogurt Delight.

Village Liquors on Highway 9 was the worst hit. Much of the outside of one of the liquor store's walls was covered in the large block letters. "Art That Kills" was scrawled next to the block letters.

"That moniker is new to me," Frisby said. Frisby said that the patrol officer who took the report at Village Liquors the morning of May 12 believed that the vandalism at the liquor store was related to what had happened early that morning at Campo Di Bocce.

"Art That Kills" is the title of a book written by George Petros. According to the Web site for Creation Books, Petros' book chronicles an underground art scene that concerned itself with such subjects as murder, rape and torture.

A telephone junction box on San Benito Avenue and Andrews Street and a nearby neighbor's stone pillar were also reported vandalized that morning.

Amy Shang, owner of Village Liquors, blames the vandalism on juveniles with too much time on their hands.

"I get a headache from kids," she said. "They always try to buy alcohol and cigarettes. Kids that are not busy get in trouble. They need more homework."

"We don't have much of a graffiti problem in town," Frisby said. "We address it as it arises. We don't have a gang problem in our area. We do have some gangs in the outlying areas. Just like anybody else, they're mobile and they come into town."

To report graffiti, call the 24-hour graffiti hotline at (408) 354-0578, or email gcross@losgatosca.gov.

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I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else's, but behind all of them, there's only one truth and that is that there's no truth. No truth behind all truths is what I and this church preach! Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place.
~ Hazel Motes (Flannery O'Connor)