Community Helps Grandmother Fight Graffiti

Last Edited: Friday, 16 Mar 2007, 9:42 PM CDT
Created: Friday, 16 Mar 2007, 8:02 PM CDT

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Grandmother Fights Graffiti

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com) -- A Memphis grandmother is fighting graffiti with gallons of paint. Taggers continue to hit the 86-year-old's garage and now one community group is joining the fight.

After FOX13 originally aired her story, the 86-year-old said neighbors started painting her garage for her. But now one Memphis community organization came up with an idea they hope will stop the graffiti once and for all.

She may be 86-years-old, but that's not stopping Fay McCants from fighting off graffiti vandals.

"It's a shame they go around defacing people's property," said McCants.

She said her garage on Bayliss Street has been tagged more than 18 times in the past two years.

With help from family, the grandmother of 10 said she keeps painting over the writing.

"This is her property and she doesn't deserve for no one to write ugly things in graffiti on her garage," said Pastor Eric Boyland.

And help arrived, in the form of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"When we heard about how this dear lady had experienced this problem…we said we had to answer the call," said Rev. Dwight Montgomery.

Now, instead of graffiti, a sign covers parts of McCants' garage.

It says "Respect our Neighborhood, Stop the Crime".

The same phrase was painted on a building on Macon Road back in July. It too was in an effort to stop graffiti and people in the area said it's making an impact.

"It's like this kind of respect or something, I'm not quite sure but it's actually working," Tecumseh Williams, a resident in the area said.

Local pastors are hoping the sign will have the same effect on McCants' garage.

McCants thinks it's worth a shot. But she'd really like to see the vandals caught and she wants to see them paint one last time.

"I'd like to see 'em have to come out here and paint the garage over for one thing...have something like that to make them realize what they're doing," she said.

SCLC is also installing a motion detector on McCants' garage.

At the end of the month, the community group said they're launching an effort to clean up graffiti throughout the Kingsbury neighborhood.