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Courtesy Friends of Red Rock Canyon
Damage is shown after vandals used spray paint on historic rock art panels at Red Rock Canyon.
By Jackie Valley (contact) 
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010 | 2:12 p.m.
Damage is shown after vandals used spray paint on historic rock art panels at Red Rock Canyon.
Sun Archives
- Vandals hit ancient art at Red Rock (11-29-10)
Metro Police said vandals responsible for recent graffiti at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area are associated with a local gang sometimes referred to as the "Nasty Habits Crew."
Police said the gang identifies itself by the letters "NHC," which also has other meanings.
The vandals use the graffiti monikers of "RODO," "64C" and "PWE," which can be spelled "Pee Wee," police said.
Metro's graffiti investigation detail is working with the Bureau of Land Management to find those responsible for the vandalism. The crime carries a possible five-year jail sentence and a fine up to $100,000, authorities said.
The Red Rock art panels — varying in size from 3-by-6 feet to 8-by-9 feet — were covered with maroon spray paint. The vandalism happened in the Willow Spring/Lost Creek area, officials said.
The panels included pictographs, defined as paintings and drawings on rock, and petroglyphs, drawings scraped and ground onto the surface of the rock. All were severely damaged, officials said.
The Bureau of Land Management estimates that restoration will cost about $10,000. The vandalism is the most severe case in Red Rock in the past several years.
Friends of Red Rock Canyon and the Conservation Lands Foundation are offering a $2,500 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the conviction of those responsible for the graffiti.
Anyone with information is being asked to contact Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555 or to visit www.crimestoppersofnv.com.
that's too bad. I didn't know gangs hang out at state parks.
$2500 reward is so small.
Somebody should form a gang where they help people and go out of their way to do good things that have merit--a gang of "real" men.
I think the punishment should also include a 'Scarlet Letter' of sorts, maybe a branding iron to the forehead.
Other meanings for NHC (from wikipedia):
* The National Humanities Center in North Carolina
* The National Hurricane Center of the United States
* The Naval Historical Center of the United States
* The National Heart Centre of Singapore
* The Natural Health Center in Portland, Oregon. A teaching clinic for naturopathic students at NCNM
* N-Heterocyclic Carbene (a persistent carbene, commonly used as ligand in organometallic chemistry)
* No Homers Club, a large Internet forum devoted to discussion of The Simpsons
Either one of those or the Neighbor Hood Crips.
THIS MAKES ME SICK!!! These SCUMBAGS are a bunch of loser punks with nothing better to do than play with spray paint and destroy other peoples property? get a life and grow up..
This vandalism just makes me so sad. People who lived in this valley a thousand years ago made this rock art and it has survived all this time and now it has been desecrated by some thoughtless,ignorant,vandals who probably didn't even know or care about the significance of the art. Here are these people from long ago speaking to us across all those years and their messages have been literally crapped on. We've lost something precious that we can't get back.
Mabey we should leave it there for future generations to marvel at the handywork of an extinct band of idiots that used to roam the valley because we got serious about putting them out of commission?How many Pee Wee's are in the NHC anyways,get on it.
Well said Beth.. it pisses me off to no end when I hike out at red rock and see graffiti on rocks.. its bad enough seeing it on walls, street signs, and buildings here in the city but we go out to Red Rock to get away from stuff like that. Id give anything to catch these "little boys" in the act.
I read a story once about a guy who caught someone doing this to the back of his garage and he emptied the can of spray paint into the guys face. The whole can lol. How funny and awesome is that!
NHC? Real tough sounding name, please...
Find the dimwits "RODO" "64C" and "PWEm and give them the max 5 years in jail and 100K and ruin their lives just like how they ruined the ancient rocks.
Hmmmm.....me thinks these young lads were just out on a CCSD homework assignment. I think you folks are all just jumping to conclusions and these lads are just misunderstood.
FYI - These losers have a myspace page. Just go there and search for "Nasty Habits".
I work for an apartment complex and I see taggers at work everyday. We have guys that come through and will tag and area sometimes right after we pass through. It seems like everyday we have to clean up after them and that we have repair the damage so much it is not funny. On one day about a month ago we had almost every common area hit and even some of the buildings.
Come on do you think metro is going to do something about catching the taggers that hit the private sector, hell no they are too busy looking for people to shoot and worrying about speeders and j walkers.
And what about the homeless population i had a guy yell and scream at me because i told him to get a job and stop bugging me for smokes.
its possible that the original paintings were graffiti from 1000 years ago. These punks just updated it. 1000 years from now people will look at the graffiti and marvel.
cwcommish - no, but they will marvel at the idiocy of your comment.
Hank jr. said it best when he said.
" I'd like to spit some beechnut in that dudes eye and shoot him with my ole 45 cause a country boy can survive "
64C is another way to write NHC.
BLM investigators can contact Myspace Custodian of Records in Santa Monica CA and request User Account Info, including hidden info & IP Logs, for "PWE" (has a Myspace account) and other NHC taggers who have a Myspace profiles.
what a shame. somebody squash these losers.
I appreciate this being a news story. This is the kind of thing that deserves a stiff penalty. Defacing public property is a serious offense, if for no other reason it is disrespectful towards what should be a respect authority.
Unfortunately, the authority in Las Vegas is it's own gang now with a reputation for "smoking fools" for making "furtive moves" and "selling marijuana."
We need to get all these gangs in check, and install a new authority that actually has the respect to prevent this kind of behavior in the first place.
It's a big rock. Get over it.
Geez...talk about slow news days.
Okay, okay.
I admit that it's very attractive...for a rock. LOL
As a visitor to the lovely nation of Singapore this summer, I observed the social benefits of an efficient and punitive justice system that the US could learn a valuable lesson from.
A Swiss national was caught vandalising a train during my visit. His crime was quickly met with a heavy fine and "caning"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_S...
Harsh, most certainly. However, it is arguably a deterrent as Singapore is one of the safest and cleanest places in the world to live and visit.
Architect, I hope you're just trying to be funny. Unfortunately, a lot of us peeps who dig that area won't find it that way. It's just sad and pathetic that people are that bored and stupid that they have to deface nature in that way. Ugh.
When they find the creeps, make them clean it up.
The mental lightweights who spray-painted the graffiti identify themselves as the "nasty habits crew". They also tag themselves as "pee wee"... so they apparently already know they have no cognitive skills and their private parts are diminutive. Apparently in their warped little minds, are they so threatened and challenged, they have to disrespect the tags made hundreds of years ago by crews that are long ago dead. How twisted is that?
Catch them...if they're under age, flogg them and if their over 18...shoot them!
Morons. It should be legal to shoot these idiots on sight. This will not be appreciated 10000 years from now, those people will just wonder why we did not care about our history. shoot just like a dog chasing deer.