Vandals target Cathedral City business with graffiti

A search was underway Wednesday for the people who vandalized a paint store in Cathedral City with graffiti.

Bill Grande, store manager at Vista Paint on Perez Road near Date Palm, drove to work Wednesday morning to find the business got a new paint job of its own. He says it’s not the first time.

“It’s probably the third our fourth time that we’ve been tagged in the last 3-4 years,” he said.

Cathedral City police say it happened sometime Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Vandals apparently pushed a dumpster against the building to access a ladder and climb onto the roof. Grande said the store’s location could be making it a target.

“It’s just a great location, you come down Date Palm and part of the building is sticking up over the bridge, and it’s just…very easy to see. That’s what they’re looking for someone to see what they’ve done,” he said

At nearby D&D Carpet, we found the owner installing additional security cameras. She’s hoping to catch vandals on surveillance video if it happens again.

“It’s very frustrating. I’m not a big fan of graffiti, you know it’s an eyesore, it’s a cost to the business every time they do it, we have to pay somebody to cover it up,” Grande said.

Police say they don’t have any leads, but they’re working to track the suspects down. Just last month, vandals targeted another area business and police arrested two people within a week. Grande certainly hopes for quick arrests.

“I mean, they say that they have records, that there are certain ways that people who make graffiti tell who they are from time to time. They just come out and want to know if we want to prosecute, and we tell them yeah, we certainly want to prosecute if we catch them,” Grande said.