A 21-year-old man who was arrested on July 14th in Seattle, accused of tagging buildings with the letters “ZEB” and charged with property destruction, has been arrested again — this time in Portland.
Samuel F. Lehtinen was booked into jail by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday for investigation of attempting to elude an officer, reckless driving and third-degree robbery, as well as other charges. Although Lehtinen was arrested in Seattle on the 14th, he made bail the next day.
Taggers have sprayed “ZEB” throughout many Seattle neighborhoods, including last weekend in Ballard. More than a half-dozen tags were sprayed on buildings along Market Street including the Bergen Place mural. . “The ZEB tag has been pretty prolific in the downtown core,” Detective Mark Jamieson with the Seattle Police Department told us. “We don’t know the significance of it.” Because of the multiple styles of the tag, police believe that multiple people are responsible for the graffiti. (Thank you everyone for the tips!)
I am a buisness owner in the neighborhood and if this guy is convicted of the zeb grafitti rampage we need to set an example and give him the time he deserves in jail. None of this probation stuff or 30 day stuff. these guys continue to do this because their is no price to pay.
yeah sure, jose.
tagging is annoying but let me guess earlier this week you were probably railing against mcginns new taxes while at the same time supporting the Ballard chamber of commerce and their tax dollars waste of a lawsuit.
Ballard business owners expecting much sympathy over a little spraypaint is ridiculous given they’ve banded together to sue the city to stop bike trails.
30 days in jail for tagging is expensive and excessive.
and the swedes can do their part by not posting the picture but of course they don’t care either and they are BCoC members not too concerned about wasting tax dollars either.
I hope to God tax dollars are not being used to clean up for Ballard businesses only the public areas.
I would not put it past the Ballard to try to soak us taxpayers with the bill but their insurance should pay for this.
Remember this blog is a Chamber member so it will not necessarily report on Chamber issues objectively, or report on them at all.
the swedes post the pictures because they are “journalists covering the story”
lol
Taxpayer dollars go to everything ….its the media who brings these non-events to our light so we can waste our own money commenting on them.
Who manages to get arrested twice in the same week in two different states?
Since this time he’s arrested in Oregon, maybe he’ll actually do some time or get a real fine.
Wow, five felonies and three misdemeanors in Portland. Why did the SPD let him go?
You should post his mug shot.
It gets more obvious each and every day around here just who “gets it” and who doesn’t. Too many folks merely sign their names on the back of a check every Friday and don’t own a damn thing. As in renters. If it’s YOUR business being trashed, perhaps then you’d get it? I went to Home Depot the other day and got asked for ID to buy freaking spray paint. WTF is this?
oh please Jose, you are obviously not a buisness owner , just a whiner who doesnt under stand buisness . what would you suggest we do with these vandals who scar our hood constantly. send them to counseling. Sheesh! PS you are right about mayor tweety Bird and his taxes, I am against them.
some good counseling would work better than jail. that’s a fact. and much much cheaper.
I understand business but apparently you don’t understand budgets. You are against tax increases but somehow think we should pay for 30 days in jail.
For a little spraypaint on your precious business! lol
What business do you own, Mr. Businessman who can’t spell or write a proper sentence?
make him clean it up while the public mocks him.
he’s also being investigated for “attempting to elude an officer, reckless driving and third-degree robbery, as well as other charges.”
real jail time certainly doesn’t seem unreasonable to me
It must be pretty sweet to get your work displayed so prominently in the media. Maybe if I did something like that I could get an ego trip out of having my work shown on MyBallard, too.
A tonne of community service for these criminals would put a stop to it. Give them at least 1000 hrs of street cleaning/garbage pick up to do. They may then think twice.
You can’t just ignore crime, no matter how small you think it is.
seriously Gurple. I just tried to post links to BTM/3a comments on stories on hideous belltown and the pi blog, but I guess we’re not allowed to post links. For those who don’t think these stories and photos aren’t giving credibility and attention to these thugs, you’re foolish.
Swedes, please stop posting photos of tags.
The “tagger” tried to make his escape in a stolen vehicle in Portland as well.
I think that in ADDITION to jail time, he should be forced to A. Pay for restoration and repainting of the mural and B. Spend a whole lot of community service time doing so himself.
The Olsens and the Jacobsens, who own quite a few buildings in Ballard, have spent small fortunes repainting their buildings. How would you feel if it was, oh, say the front of your house?
Graffiti is a vile blight on the community, contributing to an atmosphere of chaos and hopelessness. Thirty days is a good start for such an offense. Thirty days painting, not thirty days watching Jerry Springer in the dayroom.
THE BTM/3A GENTLEMENS LEISURE CLUB FULLY SUPPORTS THE ACTIONS OF YOUNG ZEB. IN THIS YOUNG MANS HONOR WE (BTM/3A CREW) ARE GOING TO CONSUME LARGE AMOUNTS OF STEROIDS,TEQUILA AND COCAINE THIS WEEKEND AND SPEND OUR TIME IN BELLTOWN TAGGING 10000 TREES! 10000! THATS RIGHT, YOU READ CORRECTLY. ZEB IS THE MEANING AND ESSENCE OF AWESOME. ALL YOU PEASANTS SHOULD BOW DOWN IN THE PRESENCE OF SUCH GREATNESS…… TERD BTM/3A
I’d say graffiti has a worse effect on a business than robbery, so wouldn’t it make sense to punish it more severely than robbery?
The Norwegian sounds like a bitter, old crybaby whiner. I owned a business in Ballard for 15 years and would never disparage someone who “rents”. It’s pretty clear from your attitude you don’t “get it”!!
He is lucky some of the business owners didn’t catch him. He might be walking around with a mouth full of black spray paint, better yet, go around and repaint all of the structures he damaged. Then, every time another zeb tag shows up, he has to clean it up too.
Oh pleasejose .just like a PC whiner! attack because your argument is a loser. Sorry i didnt use capitals letters.
oh please jose, you are a bitter man. I don’t own a business but I hate the tagging, it makes Ballard look cheap and ugly
Can we get some Taliban justice please? Flog, Stone, tar and feather or something? Other punks would stop quickly.
It boggles the mind that this article has a photo of the tag.
Apparently the editor of this fine publication does not comprehend that taggers crave attention and exposure for their “art”.
You can report on tagging without *PROMOTING* the specifics of the tag. Especially photos.
When I read the article, I thought wow, that tagger is really stupid to get arrested in two states in a single week. It seems impossible but it seems he is just slightly smarter than those who posted this photo.
I think showing the tag photo illustrates the story just the same as showing a fatal house fire or a car crashed into a pole. The taggers are into networking and have their own web sites that display photos. For example, they have thousands of pictures on on FLICKr.com. They don’t get encouragement from MyBallard.
Bjorn, The difference is that this is considered more mainstream than a flickr pool of tags. Here the tagger gets more recognition than he would simply posting amongst his peer group.
It does annoy me to no end that MyBallard does this and it’s not like they’re unaware of the complaints every time this happens.
here’s that pic of KRUK and pal again,
h.imagehost.org/view/0030/tag3
These two guys pictured just tagged the overpass of 46th and Aroura , signage with kruk $
h.imagehost.org/view/0030/tag3
one light skinned african american not pictured.
Wed, July 28 at 1:43 AM