Police catch man red-handed while painting a large penis to mark pothole in a Malaga street
The local resident claims that he was following in the footsteps of a British graffiti artist who draws genitalia around holes in the road surface, in order to get them fixed
Ricky Navarro is 49 years old, a resident of the Carranque district of Malaga city and, according to him, he has been seeing the same "hole" in the asphalt of a pedestrian crossing in front of his house for years. Fed up with coming across the pothole every day, he decided to find a way of signposting it so that it would not go unnoticed. And he came up with a plan to draw genitals in red paint covering the whole of the deteriorated asphalt surface. What he didn't expect was that just at that moment a Malaga Local Police force patrol car would pass by, who caught him in the act and reported him.
The graffiti, which he himself recorded on video and uploaded to his TikTok account, was painted at around 3.30pm on Monday afternoon on the pedestrian crossing located at the junction of Calles Virgen de la Paloma and Virgen de la Cabeza. He said that he was upset about a work-related issue. "I had had a bad day, so I went and bought a spray paint can for 8.50 euros to highlight the existence of the pothole, to see if they would fix it once and for all," he said.
But why genitals? He says he was inspired by 'Wansky', an anonymous British graffiti artist who paints large genitals on the potholes he finds on the streets of Manchester to force the authorities to repair them. "I'm a biker, I have a Harley and I know how dangerous potholes are. A friend of mine lost a leg because of one. That's why I decided to do something," he explained.
When he was recording the video, the Local Police happened to pass by and caught him with his mobile phone in one hand and the spray paint in the other. The officers identified him - "they were very nice" - and reported him for breaching the local by-law on public order by painting graffiti in a public space, which could result in a fine of more than 250 euros. “The first graffiti I've painted in my life and I get caught. I’m not cut out to be a criminal…,” Ricky jokes, having tried to report the pothole problem but ending up being the one who was reported.
