BUCKTOWN — The director of a Bucktown day care got an unpleasant surprise when she arrived to work early Monday and discovered the windows of the Children's Learning Place bus covered in graffiti.
"They tag our building all the time because we have an empty lot next door, but to get our bus? Our kids don't need to see this. They are all under age 5," said Michelle Zimmerman, director of the center at 1681 N. Milwaukee Ave.
According to surveillance camera footage, Zimmerman says the vandal was a lone man who defaced the bus windows around 12:18 a.m. Monday.
The man, estimated to be in his 20s, used yellow and white markers to "tag" the windows with various words.
"The video of him that we have is on one side of the bus. He tagged one window on one side and we have footage of him on the sidewalk afterwards," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman said she used a stick with a razor blade attached to the end of it to clean off the graffiti before children and parents arrived early Monday. She is thankful she was able to clean the windows, since more than a dozen children are scheduled to ride on the bus for a field trip to a children's theater on Monday, she said.
Officer Kevin Quaid, a Chicago Police spokesman, confirmed the incident.
Quaid said that an unknown man defaced approximately nine windows of a school bus with spray paint before fleeing.
No one is in custody and Area North Detectives are investigating, Quaid said.
