Hunt for vandals who caused thousands of pounds of damage on Birmingham bus

Dec 11 2007 By Anna Jeys, Birmingham Mail

"ARROGANT" vandals blatantly daubed graffiti on a packed Birmingham bus causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Travel West Midlands bosses have been left furious by the attack on the six-month-old No 37 bus, which runs from Birmingham to Solihull.

They said three youths, aged between 14 and 16, boarded the packed bus at 4pm on Tuesday, November 6, and began "tagging" the windows, panels and seats.

The vandals were so blatant in their attack that they even leaned over other passengers to make their mark.

They also struck on the same service on two other occasions, again daubing graffiti.

The youths got on the bus at a stop outside the Aldi supermarket in Warwick Road, Acocks Green, and travelled in the direction of Solihull.

A spokesman for Travel West Midlands said: "We are obviously very keen to hear from the public on this to try to identify the three youths.

"They showed a complete disregard for our property but also a complete disregard for other passengers.

"The images show a complete arrogance and you can see just how blatant they are.

"These images were taken at 4pm and it was on a packed single decker bus.

"There was quite severe criminal damage caused to the vehicle which will cost us around £2,000 to put right.

"The bus was also a fairly new vehicle, only six months old, which makes us all the more determined to find who did this.

"As part of the Safer Travel initiative we are working very closely with West Midlands Police and hope with this appeal we can find out who these youths are and prosecute them. Not only are we trying to make travel simpler but we want to make it safer."

The Safer Travel campaign was launched by West Midlands Police, Birmingham Community Safety Partnership, Travel West Midlands, Birmingham City Council and Centro-WMPTA.

Anyone with information can text the confidential textline on 07624 818332 or e-mail safertravel@travelwm.co.uk