When Browser\u2019s New and Used Books owners Greg and Kathi Simmons rolled into their downtown Kent business on the morning of April 24, they had no reason to think it was anything but an ordinary work day.<\/p>\n
But they soon realized they were wrong: on the back outside wall of their business, the location of their prized dragon mural, they found an ugly fact about living in a modern city.<\/p>\n
The mural was coated liberally with layers of spray paint \u2013 the work of an unknown graffiti artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were sick,\u201d said Greg Simmons, of the colorful mural that had so adequately described his quirky bookshop, before it was ruined.<\/p>\n
Browsers wasn\u2019t the only downtown shop to be hit over that weekend \u2013 a number of other businesses also bore the brunt of the paint-wielding vandal, or possibly, vandals.<\/p>\n
According to Kent Police Lt. Lisa Price, a suspect hasn\u2019t yet been located. But it\u2019s possible the person could be one of Kent\u2019s more prolific graffiti artists, or taggers, judging by the name they left behind on a few walls. Price thought the name or initials were something like \u201cMYKL.\u201d Greg Simmons said he thought he saw something on the order of \u201cMTKOL\u201d in the work left behind.<\/p>\n
Regardless of initials or calling cards, what the vandal did leave behind was a big mess in paint. So with the mural\u2019s original artist Rob Carlos of Auburn, the bookstore owners opted to take back their wall.<\/p>\n
Carlos, speaking at the book store April 30, was bittersweet about the assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me wonder what element in town here has changed,\u201d he said, frustration tinging his voice, reflecting on the ruined mural he\u2019d worked so hard on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a fear of heights as it is,\u201d he added, about getting up on the ladder again to paint.<\/p>\n
This time, though, Browsers didn\u2019t just touch up the painting. They reinvented it.<\/p>\n
With help from a group of friends, the mural has been completely redone. And this time, instead of a dragon reading a book to fairies, a fairy is reading a book to the dragon, in the colorful piece that harkens to Browsers\u2019 fantasy angle as a book shop and art store.<\/p>\n
Price said anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Kent Police.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be awesome if we could get someone who has some information useful in identifying the suspect in this case,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Contact the Kent Police Department at 253-856-5800.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Browser\u2019s New and Used Books owners Greg and Kathi Simmons rolled into their downtown Kent business on the morning of April 24, they had no reason to think it was anything but an ordinary work day.
\nBut they soon realized they were wrong: on the back outside wall of their business, the location of their prized dragon mural, they found an ugly fact about living in a modern city.
\nThe mural was coated liberally with layers of spray paint \u2013 the work of an unknown graffiti artist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":4349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}