American Tourists Arrested for Spray Painting Graffiti on Vehicles and Walls in Bangkok, Thailand

BANGKOK – Thailand’s Tourists police have arrested two American youths and charged them with vandalism for Tagging graffiti on public and private property in Bangkok city.

Arrested were American Nationals, Sell Ternberg, 28, and Nicole Gollen, 24, were arrested in the resort city of Pattaya before being escorted back to Bangkok to face charges of Vandalism and defacing public property.

Both admitted to their crime and said that there was actually three of them that sprayed painted public and private property last week in Bangkok.

The third tagging suspect has already departed Thailand.

Police said they were arrested after a video clip from a security camera was posted and shared on Facebook, showing them painting walls, shop doors, houses and several vehicles in the Sampheng area of Samphanthawong district on May 29th.

They apologized to the Thai people and warned other tourists not to repeat their actions as they would be arrested.

Police said that they now face charges of damaging public and private property. Their visas will be revoked and their names put on a blacklist.

This isn’t the first time foreigners have been arrested for spray painting graffiti in Thailand, in October 2018, two tourists a Canadian and Briton were charged with vandalism for spray painting graffiti on a wall in Chiang Mai Thailand.

Briton Lee Furlong and Canadian Brittney Schneider were initially sentenced to two years in prison and 200,000 baht fines for tagging a wall at the city’s historic Tha Phae Gate. Their sentences were halved as they confessed.

The maximum penalty for vandalizing a historical site is 10 years in jail and a 1 million-baht fine.

By Geoff Thomas

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