It was 11 years ago on a Tuesday morning at 10, two days after she had come home to recuperate from her first mastectomy. A woman, a volunteer from Reach to Recovery, had dropped by. Graffiti is ugly, it cheapens the neighborhood, and Theresa Thompson just couldn' t stand looking at it any more. So the suburban mom decided to become a graffiti-fighter. Her weapons are a dozen cans of cheap spray paint, which she always carries in the back of her sport-utility vehicle.
Class is over.
The bell has rung and the central courtyard at Garfield High School is swarming with teens. At a nearby Ramada Inn parking lot, a dozen commuters pile quietly into a long white van as a light rain begins to splatter on the windshield. Inside, they settle into comfortable, cushioned seats. Some arrive with newspapers and coffee, others with pillows. His once profitable high-tech enterprise, Area Detector Systems, or ADSC, was hemorrhaging badly.