Church becomes St. Pete vandals' latest target

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg police believe two men are responsible for a recent vandalism spree in the city.

On January 10, the men were caught on-camera with spray paint can in hand outside the St. Petersburg First United Methodist Church. We’re told they spray painted the words “Jesus Christ” on a door of the historic house of worship.

“If you don’t stop them, they continue, and they continue damaging more buildings and costing a lot of people more money for no reason,” said Yolanda Fernandez with St. Petersburg police.

“Graffiti is vandalism and we don’t want our community to have graffiti, we want it to be clean and people to respect property,” said First United Methodist Church Reverend Dr. Craig Nelson.

The next day, investigators say the pair struck again, vandalizing another church about a mile away. This time, spray painting the word “dread” on property at the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

“For someone like that, that’s really just out to deface a building, there’s really no excuse for that,” Fernandez said.

Two weeks ago, the SouthCore parking garage in downtown St. Petersburg the target of the suspects. Like previous cases in the city, graffiti was spray-painted all over the walls, stairwells and doors.

“That really caused some damage and it’s going be more than $1,000 to pay somebody to paint over all of that,” explained Fernandez.

Causing damage over $1,000 elevates a possible criminal mischief charge to a felony. Detectives think all three cases are connected, and suspect the vandals could be responsible for other graffiti in the city.

“As a community we need that to stop,” Nelson said.

If you recognize either of the men in the surveillance video, St. Pete police want to hear from you.