Along North Main in Houston, in familiar grafitti territory, there are new signs of trouble.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Heriberto Cantu.

11 News

Grafitti has returned to this Houston neighborhood.

His business has been tagged by vandals before, but this time’s different.  The vandals got much bigger and bolder and the markings are new.

“One night — you know—it just happens like that, you know,” Cantu said. 
“(The) last two weeks it’s really gotten unbelievable,” said Buster Pendley.

Pendley has seen a noticeable surge of vandalism in his Sunset Heights neighborhood. 
 Within just a three-block radius, he pointed out some on the side of a lounge, the side of a house, and spraypainted on four old 18-wheelers.
It seemed that all of the grafitti had striking similarities.

 Who were the vandals? And, are these the signs of a new gang? Heriberto Cantu is leaving those questions to Houston police.
11 News was there when an HPD officer arrived to document the incident. If this the work of gang members, the matter will likely be referred to the Gang Task Force.

In Sunset heights, Pendley and others are not only fed up, they fear this could be a sign of bad things to come.

Grafitti is not a new problem in Houston, but some see it as a growing problem lately.  

In the past, the city’s grafitti abatement division took on the task of eradicating graffiti, but that division no longer exists.

Houston requires home and business owners to clean up graffiti on private property.
 A new city ordinance now shortens that cleanup time from 30 days to 15 days. 
 It also increased the possible fine to a maximum of $2,000.
 The theory behind the ordinance is that graffiti encourages more graffiti, so the faster its cleaned up the chances are it will not return.