Two teenage boys were arrested and charged for allegedly tagging hundreds of places around Kalispell with signature graffiti.
Reilly Stephenson of Kalispell and Brandon Hegstad of Flathead County both face felony criminal mischief charges and minor in the possession of tobacco charges after being apprehended in the early morning of Oct. 5.
According to the Kalispell Police Department, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy reported seeing three juveniles tagging, or spray painting, a power box near Meridian and Three Mile Drive. KPD officers responded, and apprehended Stephenson and Hegstad, along with an unnamed 16-year-old girl who police released without charges.
Investigators say the two boys were responsible for the recent vandalism of the school district’s fleet of buses, and that they have been linked to the graffiti reading “TREE” and “SKOIP” seen all over Kalispell, including the sound wall on the U.S. Highway 93 bypass and the tunnel running underneath Highway 93 near Flathead Valley Community College.
Police say numerous other locations have been vandalized around Kalispell, and investigators estimate the number of attributed tags to these two individuals in the hundreds. Cost estimates will compiled for restitution purposes.
Anyone who has had property tagged with “TREE” or “SKOIP” and has not yet reported it is asked to contact the Kalispell Police Department to be included in this case.