Carterton buildings and signs were defaced with graffiti on Anzac Day. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED.
KAREN COLTMAN
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Carterton buildings were defaced with odd scarecrow-like faces the night before Anzac Day – and one of the district’s councillors would like to “meet the artists”.
On the night of April 24, vandals painted black and pale blue outlined circles with orange fill and a scarecrow-like face, about 30cm in size, on more than half a dozen buildings, signs, and fences around the town centre.
It took resident Hank Optland nearly an hour to scrub most of the paint off the Free Presbyterian Church building on the corner of Park Rd and State Highway 2 on Anzac Day.
He then water-blasted the remaining paint off.
His daughter Alison De Boer helped.
“I think it is really disgusting and disrespectful to do this on Anzac Day – it is disrespectful to the soldiers that died in the war and their families,” De Boer said.
De Boer saw the vandalism at the physiotherapy clinic across from New World and there are posts on the Facebook social media group, ‘Carterton Noticeboard’, with sightings of the faces at many other places.
Most of them are on the streets down to the railway station, at the train station carpark sign, and at Carterton swimming pools.
“I think the pics start at Marquis, Broadway, then go to railway land, Belvedere Rd, corner of Taylor and Belvedere – that’s what I have seen,” Justine Ticehurst posted to the Facebook group.
Hopefully someone is caught on camera. It’s pretty sad .”
Carterton councillor Rob Stockley said the council would remove any remaining painted faces as soon as it could.
He said he wasn’t surprised by the graffiti.
“I was disappointed that property was defaced but I wasn’t surprised.
“I’d like to meet the artists. I’d like to understand Carterton from their perspective. What would make Carterton a more engaging place for them?”
It appears that the vandals would have painted them to coincide with the launch of a new Fortnite gaming platform and Travis Scott ‘virtual concert’ – Astronomical that was launched worldwide during that night New Zealand time.
