Greensboro man charged in downtown graffiti spree after anonymous tip

Downtown Greensboro’s graffiti problem turned into an arrest after an anonymous tip helped investigators tie repeated tagging to a High Point man and four separate vandalism cases stretching back to January.

Christopher Michael Pujol, 37, was arrested Tuesday at his High Point residence at the request of Greensboro police and now faces four counts of vandalism by graffiti. He was being held in the Guilford County Jail with no bond because of previous charges. Police said the case involved visible damage to properties in the city’s core business district, including the 300 block of Elm Street.

The break came after Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers posted a reward notice on Facebook on April 24 asking for help identifying people responsible for downtown graffiti and tagging. About two hours later, investigators received an anonymous tip that pointed them toward social media profiles and photos associated with a suspect. Detectives then compared that information with surveillance video and said the same tags seen online matched what appeared in the footage from the 300 block of Elm Street.

Investigators later connected Pujol to four total cases dating back to January 2026, a sign the damage was not limited to a single night or one block. Crime Stoppers had offered up to $5,000 for information about the incidents, and police credited the tip with moving the investigation in the right direction. Capt. Marcus McPhatter thanked the public for sharing information that helped solve the case.

For downtown property owners, the arrest also underscored how expensive recurring tagging can become. Kim Grimsley Ritchy said she had spent more than $2,000 removing graffiti from her building at the corner of West McGee Street and South Elm Street, near the former M’Coul’s Public House location, while trying to lease the space. She said the graffiti kept coming back within weeks over the past six months, turning cleanup into a repeated cost rather than a one-time repair.

City code-compliance officials have said they moved from a complaint-driven response to a more proactive approach, with monthly checks and more patrol presence downtown. Greensboro’s Code Compliance office says its work is intended to protect property values and community appearance, and the city also provides reporting channels for graffiti and other ordinance violations. The arrest now gives downtown merchants and building owners a measure of accountability after months of repeated damage in one of Greensboro’s most visible corridors.