Spray-painting vandalism hits Okotoks homeowner

Spray-painted graffiti and vandalism continue to spread in Okotoks.

One homeowner and his family recently returned from holidays to discover their backyard shed was tagged.

Nik Lopatik says he's since painted over the graffiti on his shed but he's not happy about it.

"It's very frustrating, it just brings lots of anger and not understanding of what's going on because it's not what you expect of our friends and our nice neighbours. Yes, so it's pretty shocking."

Lopatik and his family live in the Cimarron neighbourhood backing onto a pathway and no one is okay with what's going on with the spike in vandalism.

"I talked to our neighbours and everybody feels not good and not safe with what happened. There's more happening in the more internal areas [downtown] of Okotoks than where they cannot be seen and observed immediately but no one is happy this is going on."

He's hopefully something can be done about it and the culprits are caught.

Under the Community Standards Bylaw 19.10, adults convicted of graffiti vandalism can be fined $2,500 per incident, with youths facing fines of up to $1,000 per incident.  More can be found here. 

Municipal enforcement can be contacted at (403) 938-8913.

Larger view of the backyard shed that was tagged (photo supplied)