Who is Tekoe? Crime Stoppers offering cash reward for serial tagger

Who or what is Tekoe? P.E.I. Crime Stoppers wants to know and is asking for the public to help them find out.

The non-profit organization recently posted a notice on its Facebook page offering up a cash reward to anyone who can identify the individual or individuals responsible for a series of graffiti incidents in Charlottetown and Summerside. 

Several properties in the two Island cities were spray painted with the tag "Tekoe."

Hoping for an arrest

According to Phil Pitts, the co-ordinator for the P.E.I. Crime Stoppers, the program was approached by Summerside Police Services with a request to help them catch the graffiti artist.

Pitts said if Crime Stoppers receives an anonymous tip that leads to an arrest, the tipper could receive up to $2,000.

A crime not art

"It is a crime. A lot of people think it's art or that it's, you know, just kids being kids," he said. "But in the end someone has to pay to clean it up, whether it's the private property owner or the taxpayer," he said.

It is a crime. A lot of people people think it's art or that it's, you know, just kids being kids.- Phill Pitts, P.E.I. Crime Stoppers

Pitts added that when Crime Stoppers puts a call out to the public for information pertaining to crimes, it usually receives lots of responses.

"Quite often people don't want [or] aren't interested in the money," he said. They're most interested in getting the person that's doing it stopped."

P.E.I. Crime Stoppers is reminding Islanders that they can leave anonymous tips by visiting its website or phoning the provincial tip line.

Tekoe tag recurring problem for Island police

This isn't the first time that P.E.I. Crime Stoppers has requested the public's help involving graffiti with a Tekoe tag. It reported similar incidents last March, which are still listed as unsolved on its website.

In an email to CBC News, Cpl. Jennifer Driscoll with the Summerside Police Major Crimes Unit said there have been seven incidents of graffiti in the Prince County city since January. Not all of those were the Tekoe tag. Driscoll said the properties included businesses, schools and parks.

Driscoll said while the service has followed up on every lead its received, so far no arrests have been made. She added vandalism continues to be a crime that should be taken seriously.

"With the warmer weather approaching and school coming to an end soon, we will likely see a rise in these types of incidents," she said.

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