Hussein Hachem thinks professionals are behind his marred building and truck.
It had been years since Heritage Golf Owner Walter Heath's building had been tagged, so he considered it safe to invest the $5,000 it cost to repaint the building.
Three months ago, his building was hit with graffiti again, but this time the spray-painted message, consisting of signs and nicknames, measured 25 feet wide and 6 feet tall.
"They tagged it again, pretty good," he said. "This last time they used special paint that's really hard to paint over. A professional painter could not even cover it up. It needed three or four coats."
The person responsible for tagging Heath's building years ago was caught after the Orange County Sheriff's Office assigned a task force to the issue. This was after his building had been tagged several times. Now it seems the same problem has arisen as many residents and business owners along Lake Underhill Road have complained about their now graffiti-covered community.
"It's been going on for a couple of years, but within the last year, it's gotten really bad," said stay-at-home mother of four Trish Gordon, who lives in Fieldstream Estates off of Lake Underhill between Dean and Rouse roads.
"My car has been broken into twice, my fence has been painted, and the utility box near our house gets painted all the time. I'm afraid it's gang-related. The crime is coming farther toward us and it's getting worse."
Gordon is not the only one convinced the paint-slinging perpetrators are more than just bored teens. Hussein Hachem, co-owner of Ali Meat on Dean Road near Lake Underhill, said he arrived at work recently to find graffiti spanning his 40-foot warehouse and covering the side of one of his work trucks.
"What kids are out that late at night and have that much money for all that spray paint?" he said. "My building is 40-feet high. How is it going to be just kids? It looks like it took about 10 people and they were professionals."
Some other tagging victims do not consider it troublesome. The owner of Ladybird Academy at Lake Underhill, Rick Law, was not alarmed when his sign was covered by spray paint. He simply put a fresh banner over the sign and moved on.
"The sign wasn't to the point where you couldn't read it; it just didn't look professional," he said. "I have not really noticed it around the neighborhood."
When property is tagged, the owner is charged with covering up the mess and if they don't, Orange County Code Enforcement will charge them a fee until they do. Sheriff's Office Lt. Matt Irwin said this is important because if the tag remains, it encourages rival groups or gangs to compete for the tag, creating more blight. He also agreed that non-violent property crimes, such as tagging, can lead to violent crime if left unchecked.
"When you let the little things go, it has the potential to create bigger problems for you," he said.
Gordon said she's frustrated by the Sheriff Office's lack of interest in the tagging problem. "I told them to beef up patrol, but they keep telling us that it's not a priority, which I understand. Robbing and stabbing and killing is the priority, but it's constant, and the police haven't done anything about it."
But Irwin said citizens have to be more vigilant, calling in anything that's suspicious in order to help the police catch the taggers.
"We get calls about (graffiti) regularly," Irwin said. "It is something we enforce, and we catch the occasional kid out there with spray paint, but the problem is we don't generally see it happen and there's generally no fingerprints left behind. But it's not a lacking of willingness or effort on our part."
How to catch a tagger
Gordon has been extremely vocal on the issue, contacting her homeowners association, the Sheriff's Office, Orange County District 4 Commissioner Jennifer Thompson and any residents or businesses she knows that has tagged property.
While the Fieldstream Estates Neighborhood Watch does not venture out to Lake Underhill, where Gordon says the "taggers" linger, the HOA is looking into spraying Gordon's fence and the brick wall that surrounds the subdivision with a protective coating that would inhibit paint from sticking to it.
Thompson said she plans to start tackling the problem this week, starting with exploring the possibility of strengthening the partnership between code enforcement and law enforcement — something nearby cities have done to curb the problem.
"First and foremost, it's a property issue, especially with so many foreclosures and abandoned properties. It costs business owners and homeowners money, and it's a safety issue," she said. "I think there's a real opportunity to help folks out and make a difference."
Heath said the police caught the person tagging properties several years ago using his tag name.
"They started asking around, and in no time, they popped him," he said. "The only way you're going to stop it is if enough of it is being done and the cops get involved."
Irwin encourages residents to keep strong neighborhood watch programs and report anything they consider suspicious to combat the issue.
"If you see someone standing at the corner who doesn't look right or see people walking down the street that seem wrong, give us a call and at least give us the opportunity to see what's going on," he said.