Hammond mayor’s cycling shocker: ‘Penis graffiti all over the bike trail’

A northwest Indiana mayor says he’s taking a “hard stance” against graffiti in his town — especially after finding 20 crude drawings along a favorite bike path.

Hammond Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. reported finding at least 20 simple drawings of male genitalia along the Wolf Lake Bike Path as he rode home on Tuesday.

“I’m a big cyclist and as I was coming back through Wolf Lake I blew a tire,” McDermott said. “I get off my bike and look down at the ground and I saw a penis.”

It wouldn’t be the last he’d see. McDermott called a friend to come and pick him up and continued down the path.

“I had about a mile to walk. Then I see another one about 50 feet away, then another one 50 feet after that. There may have been as many as 30,” McDermott recalled.

“They were all pointing down the path like a directional sign,” he laughed.

He took out his phone, took a photo and sent off a report to the city’s graffiti removal team using the Hammond 311 mobile app.

“It’s a great system, because it lets you report things as soon as you see them,” he said. “I’m probably one of the top posters.”

McDermott said he has never before encountered such a scourge of phallic symbols in Hammond. He praised the Hammond Public Works Department for responding quickly and getting them washed away.

“It’s been a funny story,” McDermott said. “I’ve gotten a lot of calls about it.”