CLAYTON – Clayton Police need your help identifying three young men who went on a graffiti bombing run in Downtown Clayton Sunday morning, spray-painting more than a dozen properties including a beloved historic building and a piece of community artwork dedicated to the Town’s 150th anniversary.
From around 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Sunday, cameras throughout town captured the three teens going up and down Main Street, using red, orange and yellow spray paint to tag numerous buildings, newspaper boxes and dumpsters belonging to the Town and downtown businesses. The buildings include the iconic BM Robertson Mule Company, at 144 Lombard Street, a historic family-owned building belonging to the Town’s 102-year-old World War II veteran, Sam Robertson.
The young men also hit the Duncan Building at 106 Lombard, home to numerous small businesses and office. They spray-painted the clock shop: Clockwise & Otherwise (335 E. Main Street), two salons: Hair on Main (401 E. Main) & Kirby’s Precision Cuts (413 E. Main). They also hit Craze Beauty Boutique (419 E. Main Street). They damaged all sides of the four-sided 150th chalk expression box at Horne Square, a 8 ft tall wooden box built by volunteers of the Town of Clayton Art Advisory Board as a way to celebrate the Town’s Sesquicentennial. They also covered the landscaping areas that house the Town’s art sculptures with graffiti. Town staff will have to work to see if the paint can be removed.
Also tagged in that area were a Johnstonian News newspaper box, a NC DOT traffic signal box, a Fed Ex mail box, and a box at Kirby’s Precision Cuts. Two dumpsters at Jones Café and three dumpsters and a parking sign at the Flipside were covered in spray paint – both of those businesses closed due to COVID-19.
Then, this Monday morning, graffiti was discovered in an additional location – the Southern Village Shopping Center along US 70 West. Several electrical boxes, dumpsters and buildings were also tagged with similar markings to those left downtown.
The teens may have parked in the Compare Foods parking lot near the corner of Lombard and Second streets at the start of their spree along Main Street.
Clayton Police take these crimes very seriously. If anyone saw anything late Saturday night or into Sunday morning in the Downtown area or if you recognize any of the three young men in the video and photos, please contact Clayton Police at 919-553-4611. You can remain anonymous.
