[CPProt.net] Police corner 'Gates' vandals - who signed their names!

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Police corner 'Gates' vandals - who signed their names! 
  
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Police had no trouble locating three men suspected of scrawling graffiti
Saturday on four of "The Gates": the trio allegedly had written their names
on the saffron-colored art installation in Central Park.
The three suspects, all from New Jersey, had their first encounter with
police at about 1:30 a.m. near East 62nd Street when they were ticketed for
being inside the park after the 1 a.m. closing, police said. A short time
later, officers spotted graffiti written on four of the 16-foot high gates;
the men had allegedly signed their names to the work created by artists
Christo and Jean-Claude, police said.

Using information from the earlier tickets, police quickly tracked the men
down and summoned them to the 22nd Precinct in Manhattan. When they arrived,
Gregory Giarnitta, 18, of Parsippany, N.J., John Leonard, 20, of
Hackettstown, N.J., and David Jones, 19, of Mine Hill, N.J., were all
charged with criminal mischief, police said.

"The Gates," the hugely successful installation that debuted in Central Park
on Feb. 12, will be dismantled after Sunday. Vandalism has been minor, with
someone scribbling "art?" on the bases of some gates, but these were the
first arrests. 

Originally published on February 26, 2005