Vandals\' Water-Based Paint Easily Washes Off City-Owned Cars

Tag : latex bulbs
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Vandals must have really thought they were hurting Orlandotaxpayers when they spray-painted dozens of city-owned cars, butmaybe they should have used some better paint. Vandals spray-painted rude and badly spelled comments about BarackObama. The vandals were not the brightest bulbs. Not only are theybad spellers, they used paint that came right off. "They had spray painted all the way down the side, across thelettering," said city of Orlando fleet manager Lee Whitehurst. When Whitehurst saw the damage, he feared the worst. The damagelooked extensive and police estimated it would cost thousands tofix and that would be tax dollars. "When we first saw them we thought there was extensive damage tothe paint and we were afraid we'd have to repaint them all,"Whitehurst said. Now, the only place the paint can be seen is on the pavement wherea little solvent, some elbow grease and a pressure washer cleanedthe 25 city vehicles in no time at all. "As it turned out, the paint was a latex, water-based paint.Fortunately for us it just power washed right off," Whitehurstsaid. Police are still looking for the culprit, who will be charged withvandalism on each and every vehicle. Some were scrolled withinsults to both presidential candidates. Their spelling made itclear these were not the brightest criminal minds. Some of the vehicles had paint sprayed into their gas tanks. Aquick tank flush should avoid any problems there. In the end, it all cost a little over $2,000 and, considering thelocation of the crime in busy downtown next to City Hall, policehope tips come in to help them make arrests.