Informant Helped Put Perp In Cuffs
Through the help of an anonymous tipster, police cuffed an alleged graffiti vandal last week who tagged a City Council member’s district office and other locations in the 104th Precinct’s confines, it was reported.
Police identified the perpetrator as 30-year-old Michael Mestric of 46th Street in Astoria, who was arraigned last Thursday, Apr. 3, in four separate cases on 30 counts of making graffiti and 46 counts of criminal mischief.
Law enforcement agents reportedly tracked down Mestric last Tuesday, Apr. 1, through an anonymous tip received by the office of City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley and passed along to police. Authorities said the tag painted on the wall of Crowley’s district office on Dry Harbor Road in Middle Village back in January matched markings the suspect allegedly made in Maspeth, Astoria and Woodside dating back to last May.
As a policy, the Times Newsweekly does not disclose the identity of graffiti tags to avoid providing free publicity to its creators.
According to criminal complaints provided by the Queens District Attorney’s office, the three-letter tag which Mestric allegedly scrawled was found painted in black, red and white along retaining walls of the Grand Central Parkway and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Astoria in Woodside.
The tag-painted in blue, white, yellow and red-was also observed by police painted in multiple spots on the pedestrian overpass above the Long Island Expressway near Mazeau Street in Maspeth. Police said the tag was also scrawled onto a street tree on Mazeau Street and the roll-down metal gates of several Grand Avenue storefronts.
Upon further investigation, police noted, the same tag was found at 11 different locations in Astoria, including on traffic control boxes, Fire Department call boxes, walls and garages.
Based on information obtained by the NYPD Citywide Vandals Task Force and the 104th and 114th precincts-and the anonymous tip provided to Crowley’s office- Mestric was taken into custody last Tuesday.
He was additionally charged with criminal contempt for allegedly contacting his former significant other in Maspeth, in violation of a court order of protection.
During his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court last Thursday, Judge Michele Armstrong ordered Mestric held on $4,000 bail and to return to court on Apr. 17.
