L.A. County sheriff's deputies arrest 73-year-old tagging suspect [Updated]

Calling him the oldest tagging suspect they have ever captured, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies arrested a 73-year-old Los Angeles man for allegedly putting "slap tags" on the inside of Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses.

For the last seven months, deputies assigned to the Special Problems Unit of the Sheriff's Transit Bureau have been trying to determine the identity of an "older" vandal who had been placing orange and black "Who Is John Scott?" stickers on buses in Baldwin Hills and other areas concentrated on the Westside of Los Angeles.

Deputies involved in a saturation patrol this morning at the downtown 7th and Metro Center subway station encountered the septuagenarian suspect, later identified as 73-year-old John Scott of Los Angeles, as he was putting slap tags in one of the main stairwells at the transit hub.

"Up until this year, the oldest guy we had arrested was 36," said sheriff's Lt. Erik Ruble. "We knew our guy was older, but not [73]." [Updated at 7:34 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said Scott was 74. Scott, who was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism, will be 74 next month.]

Ruble said Scott was caught with stickers in his pockets as well as a black brief case, which appears to be similar to a case that is pictured on the whoisjohnscott.com website. 

Investigators said they were not sure how long Scott had been vandalizing buses or the particulars of his life story. But Ruble said deputies believe Scott was driven to tag by the same motivation as his younger cohorts: "fame and notoriety."

"It just goes to show, the graffiti culture in Los Angeles is not age-specific and is very diverse," Ruble said.

Seven months ago, deputies began noticing "Who Is John Scott?" stickers being placed on light poles, bus benches and even on the seats of the MTA buses themselves. Ruble said many of the stickers are hard to get to and required dismantling equipment to remove.

With a little research they found that their vandal had created a website selling the mystery of his identity as well as T-shirts, baseball caps and the slap tags.

"Who am I? John Scott -- world traveler, entrepreneur, producer, but, above all, mystery -- an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea of himself," read a description above a picture of a man dressed in black, his face hidden and a question mark over it. "A real person with a real history, he is also you and me, the face in the window, the voice on the bus."

"The mystery exists no more," Ruble said.

-- Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Tagging suspect John Scott. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

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Comments

[steve]

It took them seven months to figure out that John Scott was behind a rash of stickers with his name on them?

[Nico]

7 Months? Those JohnScott stickers have been in buses for a LOT longer than that. I'd say at least a couple of years. I'm surprised the police didn't notice them sooner.

And I have to say, I think his whole shtick is pretty creative. From the little I know of him thus far, I admire the guy.

Long live John Scott!

[JRG]

John Scott is king! ...at least in the seniors division of the LA graff comp.

I like your style John Scott, you've got moxy.

[joe]

7 Months? Are you kidding? If you go to that website, it clearly states his Social Security number!

Great Job, LA County Sheriffs!

[bc]

Wow - nice police work by the crack LAPD. The guy was using his own name on the stickers! They could have cracked this case with a phone book.

[Me]

You mean it took law enforcement "months" to find someone named John Scott, who not only put his NAME on the stickers, but also had a website address on those stickers as well?

Our law enforcement should be commended for taking months to do something anybody with a college degree would have done in hours.

Kudos!

[anonymous]

aw - come on! it just seems so silly to have a saturation patrol to find John Scott...and it was a sticker? I don't get it...there is so much tagging done by gang members that is REALLY dangerous and hurtful - why are you looking for someone who is simply asking a question. I dunno - it just seems like if you were going to target someone why not "smokey" from 18th st, or "poison" from F-13?? I wonder if the ubiquitous Obama Hope stickers last year were investigated with the same vigor??? (don't get me wrong, I am an Obama supporter..just wondering..)

[drbenk]

Seventy-four or not, fry him. Make him pay for the damages and stick him behind bars.

[Egffin Haole]

LOL!!! This is the same guy that got busted in Hawaii in the mid 70's. I remember he managed to get just about everyone from the Governor down to the local police chief summoned as witnesses for his trial for selling tshirts on the streets of Waikiki without a permit.

So, they finally caught up with him. And it only took 33 years?

LMAO!!! He has made law enforcement and the courts look foolish for so long.

Surprised it took so long though, his trail of breadcrumbs are allover the country and well documented.

[ferenc]

so what do you do with this piece of work. put him in jail or the nuthouse?

[Roy]

What great work, it took me all of 5 minutes to find John Scott & a picture of hime with said brief case. The picture is from Nov 18, 2008! Next time try looking up the perp, it will save us taxpayers about 3000 man hours!!!

[andy in pasadena]

Another neglected child gets older. A sad cry for help. John Scott: you sir are an idiot.

[Tom]

It took deputies from the Special Problems Unit SEVEN MONTHS to find a guy who was putting up stickers with his own name & website on it?

One can only imagine how long it would have taken deputies from the Ordinary Problems unit!

[bogie]

i totally saw this guy somewhere in the santa monica area this past week. didn't think of him as a criminal.

the dude probably is going to get so much adsense revenue from google now that the LA times front-paged his sticker.

john scott 1, law 0

[NYC_Chic]

FREE JOHN SCOTT!

[peachy]

Metro/the Police only noticed these for sevcen months? I've seen these for at least several years... never bothered to actually look the website up because I figured it was some douche dj or musician doing self promotion. At least I got the douche part correct.

[James Codex]

I was thinking it was some "real" tagger.Just some poor old guy trying to make some money.Not even spray painting.Whatever.

[Carles Darwin]

Nice. They arrest an old man for putting up bumper stickers on buses while creeps bring in homes and kill innocent women in front of the LAPD. No wonder people laugh at the cops. I respect the law but priorities seem a little off

[PC BS]

said sheriff's Lt. Erik Ruble. "We knew our guy was older, but not 74."

This assumes the suspect was a male, before they had any indication of that, which is an anti-male smear and sexist assumption.

Just because less than 1% of arrested taggers are male, doesn't mean cops should degrade the male gender by jumping to conclusions. We men want our civil rights!

To actually base policing on statistical probabilities of criminal profiles built on human physiology & behavior patterns would be rational, effective and completely against the current PC zeitgeist, so we can't have it! Be strong against the statisticians and rationalists!

[Wow]

I don't know what's worse, this guy who goes around town vandalizing places to promote a second, no third rate website; or the police trumpeting their "investigative work" on a guy who puts bumper stickers - er "slap tags" - all over the place of a website bearing his own name with "hints" that include his social security number! Good job LAPD. Hope you didn't work too much overtime to crack this case!

[Jack D. Ripper]

And last week, it was a Retarded Mexican, spray painting a Chain Link Fence............

[JNR]

OK, so it took 7 months for the "Special Problems Unit" to identify John Scott as John Scott, and research the website advertised in his tags? Genius...

[Lauren]

This is sad that we cant spend tax payer's money on something more important than a 74 year old man being arrested for tagging. What about all the crime going on? Rapes? Murderer's? Yeah remember those

[Jerry Vandesic]

Boy, this was a hard case to solve. A guy named John Scott was arrested after a long string of incidents where bumpter stickers saying "Who is John Scott" were placed on busses. Who would have thought to suspect someone named John Scott? That's crack police work.

I'd suggest putting these police officers on the toughest cases. They have clearly proven their worth to the citizens of Los Angeles.

[David Sackman]

During the worst budget crisis in memory, this is what L.A. County Sheriffs are spending time and money on?

[Parker]

Funny and sad all at the same time. Grandpa Banksy.

[Holly]

The guy has his name and address on his website. Crack detective work, sheriff!

[Leslie]

The poor old dude was probably trying to find a way to pay for his medicine and doctor visits since healthcare is so crappy in the U.S.

[Jen]

I'm confused. I've been seeing these stickers on MTA buses for at least two years. Why does this story suggest this has been going on for only seven months?

[Death to all Taggers]

Give him the death penalty.

[catherine north]

I'm buying some swag off John Scott. Love the hat!

[El Guapo de la cuidad de los angeles]

OK "Who IS John Scott?

[Trent]

This case is second only to the LAX PD arresting all of those nasty hunters and range shooters for technical violations. You know you have to protect the citizens of Los Angeles from those hunters because everyone with a gun is automatically a bad person. Now we have the Sheriff's department protecting us from getting stickers on our a$$. Yet we let out robbers so they can rob again and murder people. Why is it so hard to get our priorities straight?

[Charlie Beck]

It took them seven months to find this guy??!!!

Fine police work (note the sarcasm). No reason LA police agencies are "feared" throughout the country.

[Jesco]

I'm surprised at a) the fact that LAPD even bothers a guy who goes around putting bumper stickers on light posts and what not and b) that they believe the Who is John Scott stickers have only been around for 7 months. I remember seeing them all over Hollywood and the downtown area at least 5 years ago.

[Michael]

ahh, the crack staff spent seven months to find John Scott, the man putting up who is John Scott stickers, who rides the bus with a briefcase with a who is john scott sticker.

[Laura]

Does this make anyone think of Atlas Shrugged, with the repeated question of "Who is John Galt?"
John Scott merely copied that phrase and changed the last name.
Honestly, it's just stickers. Little kids put stickers all over the place without getting in trouble.

[McAllisterBryant]

Let's see, google "who is John Scott" 5 Seconds
Find whoisjohnscott.com
goto networksolutions and get john scott's address, phone number, fax and other contact information.

Two minutes tops. Any reason the LA Sheriff's Office required Seven Months for this sterling detective work? Is it any wonder crime is so high? Please get Fish and Barney to a retirement home and put in some 21st Century cops.

[Emma Goldman]

Whew. I'll sleep good tonight knowing this derelict is off the streets and behind bars, because this kind of behavior must not be tolerated.

Meanwhile, I'm weighing my personal options about the possibility of owning a gun and arming myself. The delight is that I wouldn't be allowed to pack heat while riding the Metro buses and subways, which defeats the purpose of having a legally owned weapon for personal safety and self-defense. I'm sure the bad guys carry guns all day long, but I'm the one that would get caught and sent to prison just for carrying my legally-owned gun on the subway.

[robert]

lol old man probably dont have a place to stay or hes about to get evicted. so he went on a tagging spree to get caught and get free housing and food. all paid by tax payers money. lol

[michael]

This individual is a con artist to the highest sense of the word. I wont say he has managed to steal, defraud and embezzele businesses. "Who is John Scott?" You dont want to know.

[Steve Andrews]

I like John Scott. He is just trying to make a buck. If there's a real analysis of his 'cost to society', I'd sure like to see it. In the meantime, he's pretty fun.

[TheBigPicture]

What an idiot...normally it's the idiot kids who have no common sense and continually exhibit poor judgement, but this old guy should have known better...If he gets three month that may actually turn out to be a life sentence...

[scott b d]

so the cops never bothered to look at his website, which includes an email address, street address, and opportunity to buy stickers (which also contain his site, and in one case, SSN)? suddenly i feel like i'm in the wrong line of work. you go lapd!

[mike in minnesota]

All I can say is FREE JOHN SCOTT!(picture on a T shirt) FREE JON SCOTT!

[Alika]

Uh, I think his website wasn't enough to arrest him. They likely had to catch him in the act of putting up the stickers, otherwise he would claim anyone could have put them up, since he sells them online.

As a daily transit rider, I am sick of seeing his lame stickers on every 26/52/52/352 bus and am glad they finally caught this moron. Good riddance to bad stickers.

[mike in minesota]

On second thought,FREE JOHN SCOTT! Bumper stickers would be more practical

[Rick]

Saturation patrol? To find an old man putting bumper stickers on the backs of bus seats? You know, his home address is on his website, and his website address is on the stickers. And anyone who rides the bus much in Central LA knows the fellow. I've met him myself.

It's not like he was hiding in a cave in Afghanistan. How many detectives did this take?

[Oliver]

Hey, it's a black YODA! hahahahaha

[LV]

I've been seeing these stickers on the buses for the past 5 or 6 YEARS and only now to the Sherriffs catch on. All I got to say is John Scott, YOU DA MAN!!! What a brilliant idea to just ask "who is John Scott?" Made you think when you saw it. If this is tagging I'd rather see that than the scribbles you usually see on the bus.

[sancho-2]

no he is not sympathetic - graffiti destroys neigborhoods and emboldens others to further desecrate a given area with tagging. its cowardly but yet many taggers do violence to others that try and stop their vandalism. its like animals or certain mentally ill persons who sociopathically deficate on their own sheets to get attention. even of many are doing this it still should not be acceptable to law abiding people that are trying to make it by honest work - it is a worthwhile thing for police to stop and they should be praised for doing so. its a waste that its tolerated to begin with by anybody.

[Vince]

Coolio?

[Chief Wiggum]

That's some fine police work Lou.

[Chief Wiggum]

That's some fine police work Lou.

[JustMe in North Central Florida]

YOU GO JOHN SMITH!! Your story made it all the way to North Central Florida.(That is what you were hoping for,isn't it?) Guess us people from North Central Florida just dont understand being charged with a Felony for placing bumper stickers around town. All I can say is Parents beware, watch where your children place stickers. Hate to see them with a Felony charge...LOL

[JustMe in North Central Florida]

Exactly it was spelled out for the police dept. The name is JOHN SCOTT along with his website and all his contact info... It would seem they were looking for a John Doe or John Smith...LOL

[TheBigPicture]

He looks like a caveman...pretty scary looking...send him back to Somalia...

[TheBigPicture]

Isn't it great having these filthy derelicts roaming around freely...could you imagine this monster looking character sitting next to you on the subway...I bet he smells good too...hey, crackheads are people too...

[ERIK SELF]

...fIRSTLY PEOPLE CANT YOU READ? HE HAS BEEN STICKING THESE ON BUSES NOT LIGHT POLES, WE THE PEOPLE IN LOS ANGELES INVEST LOTS OF MONEY ON THESE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND FOR THOSE OF US WHO USE THESE MODES OF TRANSPORTATION IT IS WELCOME TO SEE SOMETHING DONT TO STEM THE ABUSE AND DESTRUCTIUON OF THESE BUSES...SECONDLY I WITNESSED THIS MAN DOING THIS MYSELF, THIRDLY CRIME CONTROL IS MULTI-FACETED AND ALL SORTS OF INVESTIGATIONS ARE GOING ON SIMULTANEOUSLY NOT IN PLACE OF...PEOPLE YOUR NOT PAYING ATTENTION ....CRIME MATTERS

[John Scott]

They obviously locked up the wrong guy as we have been recognizing WE ARE JOHN SCOTT bumper stickers appearing all over the world. John is still out there.

Regards,

John Scott

[darleen]

Maybe this is a reminder that we should be honoring the human spirit rather than materialism. Maybe if we utilize resources for the sustaining of a better quality of life. I dont condone the aspect of vandalism, but with what many have done to the taxpayer, it is appears this is a reminder what life is about, piece of paper or the precious shell that has a spirit. It is about the choices made so perhaps the message is to honor the MAN.

[Indi]

There was a dreadlocked black man who stood in front of the (then) Reading terminal trainstation in Philadelphia back in the late 70's or early 80's. He rang a bell and held up "Who is John Scott" bumper stickers as if he were selling them. He never said a word. I think he rang a bell and he made gestures as if he were a deaf mute. I never felt able to approach him with questions, due to inablity to communicate with him and never found out the story. I am 99 percent positive this is the same man.

[Scott Mercer]

Seven months ago you noticed them????

I've been seeing these stickers on buses for FIFTEEN YEARS.

And if you ask John Scott I'm sure he'd tell you how long he's been putting them up. I would see them occasionally over the years since the first time I spotted them, but I will agree that it seems that lately Mr. Scott has been going on a publicity blitz of sorts, with more stickers being put up than I've ever seen before.

[Scott Mercer]

Seven months ago you noticed them????

I've been seeing these stickers on buses for FIFTEEN YEARS.

And if you ask John Scott I'm sure he'd tell you how long he's been putting them up. I would see them occasionally over the years since the first time I spotted them, but I will agree that it seems that lately Mr. Scott has been going on a publicity blitz of sorts, with more stickers being put up than I've ever seen before.

[Rob Cypher]

I didn't know spraybombers got that old. jeez. gives me hope for staying young forever ;p