Police in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City said on Saturday that they had fined and deported a 24-year-old New Zealander and a 26-year-old Frenchman for vandalizing local properties with graffiti. 

The New Zealander, Tardieu Kerrigan Marcus Trevor, and the Frenchman, Extrammiana Pablo, were fined for engaging in activities in Vietnam without local authorities’ permission.

They were also required to restore the original condition of the local properties they had smeared with graffiti.

At about 11:00 pm on July 22, a patrol team from the District 1 police bureau caught the two individuals spraying paint and scrawling graffiti on the roll-up door of a house on Pho Duc Chinh Street in the district.

The patrol team seized 23 spray paint bottles from them and brought them to the police station for questioning.

Trevor admitted to scrawling graffiti on roll-up doors of local houses, fences surrounding unoccupied land lots, and surfaces at parks.

Pablo said he got acquainted with Trevor via social media.

As they share a hobby of graffiti, they smeared the roll-up door of the house on Pho Duc Chinh Street after drinking beer together on July 22.

Trevor brought 13 spray paint bottles, while Pablo brought 10.

After checking Trevor’s mobile phone, police found that his Instagram account, which had 2,000 subscribers, mainly featured graffiti pictures in South Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

The two had hired hotel rooms on Nguyen Thai Binh and Suong Nguyet Anh Streets in District 1, but the hotel owners did not register temporary residence for the foreigners.

Earlier, police in Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City had also levied an administrative fine on a 28-year-old New Zealander who sullied the roll-up door of the house at 114 Nguyen Du Street.

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