Dutch Bros. owner JJ Herzog scrubs spray paint off the side of his shop. The drive and walk-up coffee shop is one of three buildings vandalized with graffiti in one morning last week.
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Aug. 29, a vandal spray painted a random series of shapes and statements on Dutch Bros., Starbucks and a vacant building in Battle Ground.
According to Supervisor Alyssa Larson, Starbucks, off Main Street near Fred Meyer, had “Love Yourself” sprayed on it in orange paint, with a peace sign instead of an “O.”
The building that once housed Vintage Gatherings on Main Street was also hit on the same night, but with no coherent messaging. A white brick wall was marked with squiggly yellow lines.
Dutch Bros., located on Main Street near Ace Hardware, was tagged around 4 a.m., according to security footage. Two walls were tagged: the northern wall facing Main Street and the western wall facing Ace’s Hardware.
The graffiti included two statements, “Love You” and “Be Yourself,” a circled A, which represents anarchists, a peace sign, and four attempts at drawing human faces. “BU” was also written, which stands for “but you” amongst some in the virtual chat world, but is most commonly an abbreviation for Boston University.
At the time, Dutch Bros. Owner, JJ Herzog, said he wasn’t angry — just frustrated.
“Honestly, I just want to talk to the kid and say ‘hey, cut it out,’” he said while scrubbing off the yellow spray paint hours after it got tagged.
Based on the nature of what was written, Herzog didn’t think it was anything more than a random guy who decided to graffiti a couple of local places.
Herzog turned out to be right, and later had the opportunity to talk with the vandal.
According to the Battle Ground police, The vandal came to Herzog and admitted he did it. Herzog encouraged him to turn himself into the police, but decided not to press charges.
