Nov. 14--Sergio Romero has gotten used to seeing spray-painted letters on the utility boxes and walls of his Coral Gables convenience store.

"I can't paint it over fast enough," he said.

And there's not much he can do about another problem, either: Vandals are etching names, designs and barely recognizable symbols onto the store's hurricane-resistant windows.

Coral Gables police officers have tried to catch the culprits -- doing frequent checks in graffiti-prone areas. But the bad guys seem to always have the edge.

But soon, police may have a new weapon.

Thanks to a more-than $13,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the department will soon buy a mobile camera system that will -- with the help of motion sensors -- alert police as the vandals and taggers do their thing.

"We can't be everywhere," said Coral Gables Police Maj. Mark Ginn. "Unfortunately, it is a very hard problem to solve."

The past year or two, officers have arrested several teenagers. But the problem persists, Ginn said.

Police have found that most of the offenders are young people -- walking to and from school and waiting for public buses.

Large letters and symbols often appear on buildings, utility poles, work vans and fences near "where children congregate," Ginn said. "They often use things that are easy to hide in a backpack, like markers," Ginn said.

Coral Gables business owners are required to paint over the graffiti within 48 hours, according to an ordinance that passed in 2008. Residential owners have seven days.

Coral Gables Assistant City Manager Maria Alberro Jimenez said that graffiti is often a problem on public property, as well, as the city's iconic trolleys frequently have been tagged.

"Our biggest challenge with graffiti is utility poles," she said.

If businesses don't remove the graffiti in time, the city contracts with a company to remove the blight -- but at the business owner's expense.

"We are exploring a new solution," said Jimenez, who said the city was looking into a faster way of having the graffiti covered.

For businesspeople like Romero, who manages the 7-Eleven at 350 Bird Rd., the colorful letters haphazardly painted on his business are not attractive to customers. "Graffiti is a real problem," he said.

And painting over the tags each time weighs heavy on the pocket.

"It gets expensive," he said.

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