Video leads to arrest of Valley bus tagger
'Vegs,' 17, admits his identity after deputies raid his home. They say he has done at least $30,000 damage.
A 17-year-old tagger known as "Vegs," who was already on probation for felony vandalism, was arrested by sheriff's deputies after he admitted that he was the person captured by a security camera scrawling his moniker on an MTA bus in the Van Nuys area, authorities said.
Vegs was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism after deputies served a search warrant on his San Fernando Valley home on Thursday, said Deputy Marlon Johnson.
Sheriff's investigators made the raid because images shot in February by a video camera inside the bus showed a young man near the back of the bus repeatedly scrawling the tag "Vegs," officials said.
"We believe he has done at least $30,000 worth of damage to buses on the 233 line in 2008," Johnson said.
The tagger's real name has been withheld because he is a juvenile.
Johnson said he and his partner were able to tie the tagger on the video to the juvenile because he was previously arrested for tagging and was already on probation.
Investigators consulted with Los Angeles Unified School District police and the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment and learned that they already knew of a juvenile tagger known as Vegs. The tagger had acknowledged the use of the moniker in his prior conviction for felony vandalism.
After deputies searched the 17-year-old boy's home Thursday he was taken into custody and shown the video of the bus vandalism.
"We had a very clear image of his face and he admitted it was him," Johnson said.
The teenager had a distinctive Mohawk hairstyle when the video was recorded and his probation officer confirmed that it matched the hairstyle he had seen it during various visits, Johnson said.
The 17-year-old is a student at a local continuation high school. Because he is a juvenile, he was released to the custody of his parents, Johnson said.
richard.winton@latimes.com
