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YouTube Graffiti Celeb Gets Jail Time for High-Wire Hijinx

by Warren Riddle on September 11, 2009 at 07:40 PM


Over 500,000 people have watched the YouTube clip of graffiti artist "Buket" tagging a Los Angeles freeway sign while perched, without a harness, 20 feet above flowing traffic (see video above). At least a few of those 500,000 viewers, though, happened to be cops who harbored a serious desire to put an end to the street artist's brazen attempts to bring color to a drab urban landscape.

According to the LA Times, police identified Buket, aka Cyrus Yazdani, arrested him in May, and then sentenced him on Thursday to almost 4 years in prison, ordering him to pay over $100,000 in restitution for damaging public property. While Yazdani was obviously breaking the law, the sentence does seem somewhat harsh, particularly considering other YouTube related arrests that involved (alleged) budding serial killers, farting-on-food, and even rape.

In this instance, rather than documenting his outlandish act to gain some e-cred, Buket probably should have turned to the foremost graffiti artist in the world, Banksy, for guidance. It's definitely possible to be a highly successful and respected vandal, while still maintaining a closely-guarded sense of anonymity and mystery. [From: The Los Angeles Times via Mashable]
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Tags: buket, graffiti, top, YouTube

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