“Some times they did every garbage can on a couple blocks. It was pretty extensive.”

Police arrested a group of graffiti vandals known as the “WR Crew” early last Wednesday in the Riverwest area and the South Side.

According to a news advisory from Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty, “Police believe that this crew is responsible for more than $100,000 of damage to city property due to graffiti vandalism.”

The arrests of 10 individuals came after a series of search warrant executions including one accompanied by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett where drugs, graffiti materials and a firearm were recovered.

According to the news advisory, the arrests were the climax of a 15-month investigation led by Milwaukee Police Gang Unit officers Debra Valdovinos and Eric Draeger.

John Dinon, owner of Dino’s Lounge and Restaurant on East Chambers Street, was one of the establishments repeatedly vandalized for months.

“It makes it look so ghetto,” Dinon said about the graffiti around his restaurant, which he takes pride in having been a family owned business for more than 68 years.

When city officials would hear about vandalism, they would tell building owners to cover it up within 30 days themselves or send city workers to do it and charge for the service, Dinon said.

But Dinon said by the time his mom, the property owner, covered up the graffiti and sent in a complaint to the city, the building would be vandalized again.

“We keep repainting it, they keep redoing it,” Dinon said.

And it wasn’t just businesses that were affected. Claudine Lienau, a member of the Riverwest Walking group, said she could see the damage all over the neighborhood and extending to the South Side of the city, where her husband works.

“Some times they did every garbage can on a couple blocks,” Lienau said. “It was pretty extensive.”

Lienau said other than little hits, in the last 13 and a half years she has lived in the neighborhood, vandalism hasn’t been bad until recently.

Her property was hit twice. During the Locus Street Festival in June, a huge dragon-like design ended up on the center door of her three-door garage. Then two months ago she was victimized again from the alley side of her house with WR markings left on garbage cans.

“It was like something my nine-year-old would draw,” Lienau said.

After she called in the first incident, a squad and a sergeant came out to view the damage, and Lienau said something big must be going on.

“I’m glad they finally caught them,” Lienau said. “I would really like to see a lawsuit against them.”

She said she would join in with a lawsuit to reclaim her damages if other people would.

Sura Faraj, Riverwest Neighborhood Association chairperson, said if people want to sue for damages, they would have to have previously reported the incident and have proof the graffiti was associated with those arrested.

“I have no idea if people reported all of those incidents,” Faraj said.

Milwaukee Police Department spokeswoman Anne Schwartz said the vandals could face up to two years in prison. She also said police are still looking for two more suspects.

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