One Sunday morning I had to drive to the office to meet a client. The front of my car was not facing me (I was not parked in my driveway), so as I got into my car and drove away everything seemed as usual. I arrived at my office and got out of my car, met with my clients and finished the paperwork. Then we were headed to meet at their new home to do a property “walk through”. They left the office first and I was to follow. As I left the office, now the front of my car was facing me and behold I was shocked! My car had been tagged! I still had to drive to the other side of town and meet my clients and I was so embarrassed. My yellow VW Beetle ruined! How was I going to get this off? Well the good news is that it all came off pretty quickly with the product – Goo Gone! Not a spot left and no harm to the paint on my car.

After this incident, I became more aware of issue of graffiti. What do you do if you spot graffiti?

Both  Santa Cruz and Watsonville have Graffiti Abatement Programs.

In Watsonville, property owners are required to remove graffiti within 48 hours. The city will no longer provide free unlimited removal for private property owners. The city will continue to remove graffiti from public property. If your property is part of a Home Owners’ Association, it is your responsibility to contact the HOA and have the graffiti removed within 48 hours. The ultimate responsibility for the removal rests on the property owner if the HOA fails to remove the graffiti.

If this happens to you, make sure you file a police report, I did.