102-Year-Old Disabled California Man Fined Thousands over Graffiti Left on His Property

A 102-year-old wheelchair-bound resident of Oakland, California, has been threatened with fines for being unable to remove graffiti that was painted on his fence by vandals.

Victor Silva’s home has been repeatedly targeted by spray-painting criminals in the crime-infested city, and he’s unable to do much to stop it in his old age. Instead of helping Silva, an 80-year resident of Oakland, city officials handed him a citation. 

Earlier this month, Silva got a notice demanding he remove the latest graffiti from his back fence by March 19 or face an $1,100 fine, plus an additional $1,277 for each failed re-inspection, KTVU reported.

“It was so absurd, it’s like a joke. If you drive around the city and see the graffiti everywhere, it’s just I don’t know what to say,” his daughter-in-law, Elena Silva, told the local outlet.

When the centenarian was younger, he did keep up with the near-constant painting job.

“Just had a roller and a paintbrush and just painted it. It was very easy because I was a contractor,” he said. 

Since he’s become confined to a wheelchair, it’s been more difficult to complete that task.

“I’ll be 103 in two months or so. That slowed it up a little bit, you know,” Silva said.

His 70-year-old son, Victor Silva Jr., is now the one who cleans up the vandalism when he can.

“It’s hard to keep up with it because as soon as we get it painted, it’s gonna be graffiti on it again, and it won’t last,” Silva Jr told the station.

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A utility box owned by the city located just up the street from Silva’s home is also covered in graffiti — but the city seems to be more worried about fining elderly vandalism victims.

The Silva family also owns a small business that has been broken into three times within the last year, Silva Jr. said.

When the 70-year-old calls 911 during such incidents, he said “I’m put on hold every time.”

“So it’s hard to understand where our tax dollars are going. They can’t answer 911, but they can come out and hassle you about a fence?” he said.

When a KTVU reporter asked how he’s lived to be 103, Silva said, “Very easy. Just keep breathing and, you know, behave yourself.”

His son added, “I would hate to think that there [are] other hundred-year-old people that are being harassed like this. Oakland has to change. The system is not working.”