'Taco taggers' target East Dallas businesses, homes

Business owners and residents in East Dallas are not sure what to make of vandals targeting the area with taco graffiti.

Over the last week, people have noticed what appears to be tacos along a stretch of Gaston Avenue on homes, dumpsters and businesses. Folks don't know what to make of it.

Whoever is responsible for the purple graffiti hit Gabino Perez's convenience store. He's been getting questions from customers about it ever since it showed up as well as another piece of graffiti about a week ago.

In his 14 years in business, Perez has been hit with graffiti before, but he's never seen the same tag all over the place. They mostly look alike. The majority of them were easily visible from the road. They don't appear to be targeting anyone in particular, hitting a mix of old buildings and some buildings still under construction.

Perez actually doesn't mind it.

“I’m just impressed you know people can do that type of stuff,” he admitted.

But not everyone is as content, and paint can be tough to get rid of. Some people have clearly tried to wipe it out. Perez says a city employee came by early Wednesday asking him to sign paperwork so the city could clean it off.

“When it's just sort of going around vandalizing weird quirky things on the side of buildings, it’s kind of annoying,” said resident Lane Granberry.

Some say although it is East Dallas, people should expect things like graffiti in an area so close to the heart of the city.

“It's like somebody that buys a house above a nightclub and they don't expect late night noise,” said resident Brian Seeger. “You know you want to be near where the action is, but you also want to sleep at night.”

FOX 4 reached out to a city spokesperson about the city's plans are to clean the graffiti up but did not hear back.