October 29 Update:
The National Park Service has issued a press release naming 21-year old Casey Nocket of New York as the primary suspect in vandalism cases across eight national parks. They state that “Investigators continue to collect evidence of the crimes, conduct interviews, and are consulting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office about potential charges. We ask the public to exercise patience and allow due process to take its course as the investigation moves forward.”
“If people visiting these parks come upon these images, they should contact the nearest park ranger with information about the image location. Visitors should not attempt to remove the images.”
Casey Nocket is on an epic, cross country adventure, visiting some of the most beautiful and icon National Parks in the west. Sadly, she has left the parks defaced with her artwork scrawled on rocks with acrylic paints and signed with Creepytings — her Instagram name. Her serial crimes were first noted on a Reddit discussion, shared by Calipidder and then picked up by Modern Hiker. Soon the social network she sought to to gain the favor of was working against her, exposing her and her crimes.
This map shows where she’s been, and where her defacements have been found.
Casey Nocket’s Instagram and Tumblr accounts were shuttered, but not before a number of outdoor enthusiasts snagged screenshots of her crimes.
The National Park Service has issued a press release stating that they are actively investigating the vandalism.
If you have any information about these or related crimes, please contact [email protected]. Do not try to repair any vandalism. Instead, document with a photo and GPS coordinates, if possible and let the authorities know.
My hope is that this event will serve as a wake-up call for would-be vandals, and maybe even raise public support for better funding of our National Parks.
That is just plain astounding that someone would be so selfish. I hope she gets some prison time.
She made the investigation so much easier by documenting her crimes on Instagram. Kudos to Calipidder and Modern Hiker for raising attention to her defacements. Now the NPS is investigating. Hopefully there will be an arrest in the near future.
What a jerk.
No one can improve on God’s work, she should be ashamed of herself..
It’s not even like she used chock either-I read somewhere else she was using acrylic.
As an art lover, this irritates me. National Parks are not game for graffiti and I really hope she is punished severely.
What a moron. This is typical lately of a lot of Americans. This sense of entitlement and being able to do whatever they want. Makes me sick. What happened to leave no trace and take only photographs?!?
A hiker in the area of her hometown posted on Reddit that he has seen her graffiti in an upstate New York park as well. I very much doubt that this cross-country haunt was the first time she decided to leave her mark; she’s belonged to hiking organizations since high school (according to internet searches) and has traveled to other parks in the past.
Hey Casey, in case you haven’t noticed, you’ve been disowned by the entire country. I’m pointing this out because you seem to be clueless when it comes to understanding what you’ve done. If you were looking for attention – you got it! You may as well have painted a target on your back. Nice job – idiot.
I think this will end it. She’s on the S list of every avid hiker in the country. Doubt we’ll be seeing much of her along the trail. Doubt she wants to deal directly with those she has infuriated. Kinda hope she does though.
Casey, good luck getting a job as long as the internet is around. However, you seem like the type of gal daddy will take care of. Great work.
This woman is merely taking attention whoring to its logical conclusion. Like most self-absorbed American women, everything is about her. Her art is not actually about the art, it is about taking a picture of the art to post on Instagram and Facebook in order to get Likes and the gratification she receives. I doubt we’ve heard the last from this woman
Yeah, the problem is women. Like men don’t attention whore, buy themselves expensive sport cars, cheat on their wives, and build multimillion dollar polluting industries. This is the problem of one woman not of womankind. Let’s keep the bitter sexism to ourselves.
Unbelievable what some people believe is their freedom of expression while the rest of us have the right of freedom from ones expression! I’ll be glad to send her a tooth brush so she can clean up her mess she’s left behind! Disgraceful!
This disgraceful vandal must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. it is a shame that our cities are covered with this vandalism. It will be crime if our natural spaces are subject to the same fate – by these so-called-“artists”.
However, I fail to see how Jeff Hester’s desire for more funding of National Parks would prevent this. What are you planning to do – place a park ranger every 30 yards in National Parks to keep an eye on people?
What is needed is not more government intervention, but exactly what is happening right now – people who treasure our natural spaces are joining together as a community in outrage and pressing for prosecution of this vandal as a way of sending a message to other people who aspire to leave their mark on our natural wonders. We will not tolerate this awful behavior. We will see that you are prosecuted. We will stop you.
DRagoN — you are right about the groundswell of public sentiment serving to protect our environment. That is going to be the #1 deterrent.
Here in Los Angeles, many of the popular destinations such as Eaton Canyon are covered in graffiti. An increased presence from park rangers might help, as would cleaning it up and avoiding the broken window syndrome. But ultimately it requires a shift in thinking that cuts across cultural and socio-economic boundaries.
Back in the ’70s it was not uncommon to see people through trash out their car window as they drove down the road. Apparently the thinking was that it didn’t do much harm. A concerted awareness and education campaign that started at elementary school level, coupled with increased fines for littering helped cut that way down, and the roadways (at least here in California) are considerably cleaner than they were three decades ago.
That shift in thinking took an entire generation to take on, and it required some muscle behind it; namely the threat of fines and penalties.
Ms. Nocket was clearly someone who loved the outdoors and hiking. She built her trip around visiting some epic places and I’m sure had some great experiences. But she didn’t see what she was doing as being seriously wrong. I’ve seen others who say essentially the same thing — what’s the big deal? She didn’t hurt anyone. The reality is that vandalism of our wild places IS a serious issue, and it changes the experience for everyone who sees it. Like a fly in your soup — it might not hurt you, but you’ll be turned off from finishing the soup (or even returning to the restaurant).
We — collectively — need to get the word out that vandalism and graffiti of our natural spaces is NOT acceptable, NOT cool, and NOT tolerated.
The irony is that in a century or two any remnants of Nocket’s work will be considered a valuable artifact and it will be a crime to attempt to remove it.
Not so, CaliGirl.
Firstly, her graffiti will be completely removed. It’s already been removed from Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Parks.
Secondly, your suggestion that her graffiti would be considered a valuable artifact in a few centuries is facetious. That argument implies that her work is essentially the same as that of ancient Native Americans (minus the passage of time). Unfortunately there’s a flaw in that argument. The ancient petroglyphs are important not simply because they are old, but because they are one of the few remaining historical records of a culture that has (in many cases) disappeared.
Today, there are MANY ways to leave a historical record that work much better than scrawling on a rock in the wilderness.
Umm, I wasn’t trying to be facetious, nor was I implying that her work was equivalent to the pictographs of the ancient inhabitants, nor was I presenting an argument of any sort (certainly not in support of the vandal). Just a statement of irony, relevant to the autographs left behind by 19th century miners and spelunkers. Here is a shot of the scribblings on the walls of Lehman Caves: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3159/2775540942_94b77fb8c1_z.jpg. Fortunately the mineral processes that occur in such caves will eventually obliterate the narcissistic evidence.
With the exception of Joshua Tree, I have hiked in every one of the NPs that woman has vandalized and would be very upset to see such a blatant defacement. It irritates me just to see where shortcuts have been made across switchbacks.