Adult Couple, Child Caught On Video Vandalizing Tulsa Parking Garage

There are more serious crimes than spray painting graffiti on a downtown Tulsa building, but in this case, it's the lookout a couple uses that gets your attention.

Surveillance video shows what looks like a mom, dad, child and even the family dog, out for a nice evening bike ride. But then the man goes behind a wall and begins spray painting a public parking garage.

The whole time, the little boy is repeatedly pushing the elevator button to stall it so no one can get on it and come down and see what's happening. At times, he goes behind the wall and checks out the work, but for the most part he's looking around and pushing the elevator button, over and over.

Paul Strizek with the City of Tulsa said, "As a parent, it was quite disturbing."

Strizek said if the parents find this to be an acceptable activity with their child it makes him wonder what else might be going on in the household.

"I would think child welfare people would be interested in visiting with this couple," Strizek said.

It happened last Wednesday. Strizek said taxpayers paid millions of dollars to build the parking garage.

He said it may seem like a harmless pastime, or just someone expressing his artistic side, but graffiti costs Tulsa citizens more than $100,000 a year. It's not just in one or two places, but hundreds all over the city and it adds up.

"If somebody walks into City Hall with a gun where you pay your utilities and steals $100,000, it would be a big story, but nobody sees it in the aggregate," Strizek said.

Experts say the best way to keep graffiti from coming back is to quickly paint over it. From watching the video it appears it isn't the first time the group has done this, so it may not be the last, unless they're identified.

This type of crime is a misdemeanor unless the damage exceeds a thousand dollars, then it becomes a felony.

As for the $100,000 the City spends on cleaning up graffiti every year, that would be enough money to patch 10,000 potholes.

If you have any information, police ask that you call Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS