Citizen helps identify serial tagger in Soquel

An alert citizen helped bust a serial tagger in Soquel Thursday.

20-year-old Brandon Valencia was arrested for tagging several locations along Soquel Drive near Park Avenue.

Deputies responded to the call of a tagger in the area and found Valencia attempting to board a bus but was detained.

Deputy Dunn started the investigation and found 14 tags along Soquel Drive. Valencia had tagged the word “BA$0.” The 20-year-old had spray paint on his hands and clothes.

An eye witness saw where Valencia had discarded the spray paint can in a field and deputies were able to collect it for evidence.

Deputy Dunn realized the tag “BA$0” was also from numerous vandalism cases he has investigated throughout 2017. The previous “BA$0” tags had been responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damage.

“BA$0” had been tagged on buildings, walls, electrical boxes and benches throughout Soquel this year.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office followed up with a probation search at Valencia’s home and the tag “BA$0” was tagged on items in his bedroom.

Valencia was arrested for numerous counts of vandalism.