Vandals tag downtown with paint

WILMINGTON — Paint-wielding vandals made a nasty mess in downtown Wilmington overnight.

Officials say more than 20 businesses, cars and parking meters downtown were tagged with spray paint with racial and derogatory slang.

Now business owners are left with the clean up.

Pender’s Café owner Maxine Pender said, “I think it’s terrible. We’ve had problems going on for several years and it seems like nobody can do anything about it, and it’s very expensive to get this stuff taken off — and we have to pay for it.”

Local bar owner Owen Dunne said, “It’s something you have to deal with doing business downtown, there’s nothing you really can do about it.”

Police were able to get video on possible suspects. If you recognize these individuals you’re asked to call Wilmington police at 910-343-3600.