48-year-old Port Man Charged in 'Nazi' Graffiti Incidents

Frustration with being unemployed and a food pantry's supposed unwillingness to help him out is apparently what led a Port Washington man to commit numerous acts of vandalism over the years, including painting swatiska symbols and phrases such as "Hitler's food pantry."

Dale R. Ziegler, 214 N. Franklin St., was charged Thursday with two felony counts of criminal damage to religious property as well as two misdemeanor counts for graffiti. The charges stem from incidents in June 2010 as well as

According to the criminal complaint filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court:

Port Washington police officer Jerry Nye spent Tuesday digging through police reports involving similar crimes dating back to 1998.

It was the phrase "Penis Paul" that lead Nye to make the connection between several incidents and Ziegler. That phrase was noted as one used in a different graffiti incident, which Nye also remembered from an investigation in 2001 — when Ziegler had admitted to spraypainting the phrase on the bike path. Nye also found that Ziegler had started a fire on the bike path in 2005.

With this information, Nye, along with officer Kurt Knowski, visited Ziegler's residence.

Ziegler, 48, denied the incident, telling the officers he did not have money to buy paint or stencils. He did, however, confess that he was stressed out because he was unemployed and was using the Food Pantry in Grafton for help because the Food Pantry in Port Washington was limiting him to six eggs each week.

Ziegler then gave permission for Nye and Knowski to search his apartment. The officers found a set of stencils with blue paint on them, consistent with that used in the graffiti.

Ziegler initially told the officers the stencils were from previous graffiti incidents, but finally admitted he was responsible for the graffiti from the past weekend. He had done the graffiti, he said, because he felt the county was not helping him to find a job, that his counselor was not doing enough to help him and that he had been having problems sleeping lately.

The graffiti over the weekend started on the trail just beyond where it meets up with East Jackson Street, and continued to the area of , which houses Port's Food Pantry, where the 27th and final message read, "Hitler's food pantry." In June 2010 the words, "Hitler pantry food" were painted on the sidewalk area of St. Peter's Church.

Ziegler said the graffiti was a way of expressing his frustrations because there was nobody around whom he could talk to about his situation.

If convicted of all charges, Ziegler could face up to 8-1/2 years in prison and/or a $40,000 in fines.