Posted on 06/22/2005 12:45:18 PM PDT by SmithL
The case of the defaced Charlie Brown was not a difficult one to solve, as Santa Rosa police caught the misguided miscreant red-handed.
Make that red-faced.
What’s more, the culprit — a well-known character that locals say isn’t playing with a full deck — was kind enough to not only autograph his handiwork, but include his date of birth so even the greenest detective would have no doubt who to look for, police said.
Just to make sure he got the credit he deserved, the vacuous vandal later confessed his crime, police said.
And that is how it came to be that Monti Tino found himself sitting in a jail cell this morning, charged with felony vandalism and awaiting arraignment.
It all started about 7 a.m. Tuesday, police said, when Tino decided a statue of Charlie Brown standing sentry outside a popular joint called Omelette Express needed a little Jackson Pollackian embellishment.
The statue is one of 55 erected around town to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the beloved cartoon by Charles M. Schultz, who spent 42 years in Santa Rosa before he died of cancer on Feb. 12, 2000.
Tino broke out a marker and doodled on Charlie’s cheek, then drew a tongue for good measure, said Don Taylor, who has run Omelette Express ever since his mother hung up her apron 18 years ago. And then for reasons that only Tino knows, he relieved Charlie Brown of the strawberry milkshake the iconic character has held aloft in his left hand ever since Taylor installed him in May.
Satisfied, Tino signed his name on the sidewalk in front of Charlie Brown’s brown shoes, added his date of birth and headed for Railroad Square.
A passer-by spotted Tino there,
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
If this happened in Boulder, the police would still be perplexed.
Can you say "Beeyatch," Tino? I knew you could.
...what the hell is that???
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