Following article is from the web site, delawareonline.com
Graffiti 'legend' arrested, police say
Teen blamed for $500,000 in damage
By TERRI SANGINITI • The News Journal • April 29, 2008
Traveling into Delaware, visitors often see the bright block letters "EASY" on overpasses, fences and rail cars.
"You can't come through Delaware on I-95 if you're a graffiti writer," New Castle County police Detective LaVincent Harris said. "You immediately take notice, this is their turf. They're legends in Delaware."
The "EASY" tag, as well as "Mr. Ease" and "FAST HANDS CREW," is the work of 19-year-old Derrick Noel, the No. 2 graffiti tagger in New Castle County, Harris said. Police calculate that Noel's tagging has amounted to more than $500,000 in damage. Police would not comment on who the top tagger is.
Authorities describe Noel as "a talented kid" had he not been using his talents for vandalism.
His canvas for the past four years -- since his prior graffiti arrest at age 16 -- has primarily been CSX railroad cars.
Noel, of the 2500 block of Newport Gap Pike, was arrested Monday on 128 criminal counts of graffiti, criminal trespassing, possession of graffiti implements and other offenses. Thirty-two of the offenses are felonies, county police Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said.
Noel is being held in the Young Correctional Institution after failing to post $128,000 secured bail.
His arrest grew out of a traffic stop earlier this month, police said.
County police Cpl. Mike Hopkins was on routine patrol about 6:30 p.m. in the rear parking area of the Eastburn Center on Kirkwood Highway when he spotted a parked car blocking the fire lane.
When he approached, two men quickly got into the car, one trying to hide a baseball bat.
"They were not playing baseball," New Castle County police Superintendent Col. Rick Gregory said.
The pair told the officer they had argued with someone and were using the bat as a potential weapon.
Hopkins told them to put the bat in the car's trunk.
"When they opened the trunk, that's when he saw the multiple spray paint cans," Navarro said.
Inside were 172 cans of spray paint, sketch books and a photo album containing 216 4-by-6-inch photos of railroad cars and a few bridges, tagged with "EASY" or some variation, court records show.
Noel, one of the car's occupants, was charged with possession of graffiti implements, triggering a larger investigation.
Over the next three weeks, county detectives reviewed the albums and shared the information with CSX and state and Elsmere police.
On April 10, county police went to Noel's home near Prices Corner. They seized a computer, a camera, sketchbooks, photographs, more than 150 aerosol spray paint cans and baggies full of specialty spray caps, paintings with the tags "EASE," "EASY" and "EASYONE," 35 mm negatives, a skateboard decorated with graffiti, shopping lists and other evidence linking Noel to the vandalism, court records show.
Of the 216 photographs seized, 32 were determined to be on CSX property dating to November 2005.
CSX Regional Police Commander Larry Weigand said destruction by graffiti costs the company between $5 million and $7 million a year.
The cost of repainting one 53-foot boxcar in CSX colors is about $3,083. Total damage done to the 32 boxcars is calculated at $101,735.04, police said in court records.
Taggers use rail cars as their canvas because "they're proud of their work and it's a way to show their work across the country," Weigand said.
"Far and away, most of what we see is a tagger, not a gang symbol," Gregory said. "But the rail companies suffer a great loss, so do businesses and so do homeowners."
Noel was arrested Oct. 28, 2004, by Delaware River and Bay Authority police on three counts each of criminal trespassing and graffiti and one count of resisting arrest for allegedly spray-painting a bridge on I-295, according to court records.
At his Jan. 3, 2005, trial, he pleaded guilty to one count of graffiti. He was placed under community supervision for five months and was ordered to pay restitution of $800, court records show.
Noel registered as a graphic design student at the Delaware College of Art and Design in the fall of 2006, but is not enrolled there now, said spokeswoman Michele Besso.
Harris said Noel and his Fast Hands Crew design their tags in a sketchbook before tagging in the middle of the night.
Taggers often take a picture of their work and put it on the Internet to get credit for it, Harris said.
Noel's arrest will send a message to other taggers in the area, Harris said. "There's a penalty to pay other than someone giving you a high-five," he said.