Arrest Made in Graffiti Cases

Baltimore,MD,USA

Nov 18, 2004 7:20 am US/Eastern
Pikesville, MD (WJZ) State police say an old newspaper article found on the Internet led them to a suspect in a graffiti spree.

City work crews in Baltimore have been busy for two years scrubbing the spray-painted word "apes" from numerous bridges and overpasses in Baltimore.

State police became involved last month when it started showing up on overpasses on Interstate 95.

Troopers say 26-year-old Christopher Peters of Baltimore became a suspect when an Internet search uncovered a 1999 interview Peters gave to an alternative newspaper in Wisconsin after completing a prison sentence for vandalism in that state.

Troopers in Maryland then compared notes with police in Milwaukee about that city's 1997 "apes" graffiti investigation
and searched Peters' home in Baltimore.

The raid turned up 2,000 cans of spray paint, pictures of graffiti -- and an ape suit.

Peters is being held on several counts of malicious destruction of property at the Harford County Detention Center.