MANHATTAN — A city worker with a history of graffiti arrests was busted for tagging his initials about 80 times across the Upper East Side over the past two-and-a-half years, police and prosecutors said.
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene lab worker Robert Dyer, 47, who has dozens of arrests for graffiti going back to 1995, was picked up Wednesday by Officer Tarik Hunter near his home at 64th Street and First Avenue after investigators conducted a social media search and connected Dyer to the tags, an NYPD spokeswoman and complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
Officer Hunter tracked Dyer from when he first struck on Jan. 22, 2015, at First Avenue and 62nd Street, through July 29 of this year, the complaint said.
“I took a marker from the defendants [sic] pants pocket,” the officer said, according to the complaint.
He kept tagging the area in the “same style” at all the locations until he was finally brought to justice, officials said.
It cost the city about $100 to clean up 67 of the locations he tagged, according to court and about $200 to clean 10 others, court papers said.
Dyer, who works as a laboratory associate and earns a base salary of $46,460, was charged with 77 counts of making graffiti, criminal mischief and possession of graffiti instruments.
He was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and released without bail. He is due back in court on Sept. 20.
Neither his lawyer or the Department of Health immediately returned requests for comment.
