Local businessman Rob Thorsteinson is posting a $2,500 reward to catch the graffiti vandal who hit his Riverside building twice in three days and says the community must crack down on taggers.

“It’s time businesses don’t just lie down and clean it and pay the bill and hope it doesn’t happen again,” said Thorsteinson on Monday.

It will cost thousands to clean the paint that covers windows, doors and the side of his business, he estimated. He is also installing security surveillance cameras. He doesn’t want his business named to avoid becoming the target of choice for the graffiti community.

What he finds particularly galling is the brazenness of the tagger who he caught red-handed at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Thorsteinson said he was looking out of his office window and he saw a man lurking around outside wearing a ski jacket on the 20C-plus day.

“He’s standing out there with this paint thing in his hand, and I touch the paint thing and it’s wet.

“I said, ‘What the hell are you doing?’

“He just had a really dumb look — like why wouldn’t I be vandalizing at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon?”

The tagger, who was 15 to 17 years old, then took off with a friend, leaving his mountain bike behind. Police were called and checked out the paint job on a pole outside the building, but the vandals were long gone.

On Sunday, he came to work at about 11 a.m. to find paint covering the building. Taunting messages like, “Who’s the bitch now” and “Don’t f--- with graff writers” and other obscenities were scrawled all over.

Thorsteinson has nothing but contempt for the taggers.

“In my opinion, they are nothing more than punks that have no way of expressing themselves without defacing or destroying other people’s property. They are nothing more than street thugs.

“I’m offering a $2,500 cash reward to anyone who can lead the police to the arrest of the guy.”

The money comes with no questions asked and whoever turns in the tagger can remain anonymous, he said. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or police at 343-5575.

Thorsteinson wants to see graffiti vandals face a short dose of jail time if caught. It would probably be doing them a favour, he said. The kind of person who takes this kind of revenge is unlikely to accomplish much with their life without being steered in a new direction.

Downtown Business Association executive director Laura Turner said taking a hard line on graffiti is the only tactic that works.

“Without a doubt, any community that has had any success in getting rid of graffiti has had this zero-tolerance approach.”

The key is getting rid of the graffiti as fast as possible. If graffiti is removed within 24, hours there is a 10 per cent chance of getting tagged again. If paint is left in place for two weeks, there is a 100 per cent chance that the taggers will be back, statistics show.

Turner said going through Crime Stoppers is a good idea.

She said it is unfortunate that a business person is looking at forking out their own money for a reward. “But if it works, it makes sense to me.”

The business association has been promoting graffiti awareness and lobbied for a graffiti hotline set up in the spring to track incidents and the scale of the problem. Graffiti is photographed and tags are filed to help track down vandals.

The hotline has already taken 200 calls in about five months.

Contact Paul Cowley at pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com