Teens Cited for Drawing Chalk Pictures

OUTSIDE PHILADELPHIA -- Chalk drawings of a whale and some sea turtles earned two local teens citations for criminal mischief.

But police said it wasn't so much what they were drawing, as when and where they were drawing, that landed the young men in hot water.

"They were doing it at midnight, in the middle of the street," Doylestown Borough Police Chief Jim Donnelly said Thursday. "And, we’ve had several instances of vandalism with the offenders using chalk."

The chief said chalked graffiti has been found on several Doylestown buildings in recent weeks. Some of the drawings were obscene, and some were quotes from song lyrics, Donnelly said.

So when officers came upon two teens drawing with chalk around midnight on Tuesday, Aug. 7, they stopped and questioned them. It happened on North Clinton Street near Wood Street, according to police reports.

Connor Logan, 18, of Doylestown, and a 17-year old male, also of Doylestown, were cited for criminal mischief. Logan, a recent graduate of Central Bucks West, and his fellow artist had drawn "a large whale and several sea turtles" on the street, according to the police report.

The drawings were done with white chalk, and have since been washed away.

Donnelly said the boys were cited only for the North Clinton incident, but he thinks there was more to it than that.

"My personal belief is these are the same people who did the other graffiti, but we can't prove it," Donnelly said. "But the officer caught them in the act in this instance and charged them with that violation. So we issued the citation, and we'll have to see what the judge says."

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