COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – After the story of a massive mural on the roof of a Colorado Springs business depicting more than a dozen images of personified male genitalia went viral, it appears the neighborhood dispute has been resolved.
11 News was the first to report the obscene mural painted on the roof of Fallen Heroes Tattoo and Piercing aimed at a neighboring apartment complex. The business is just east of Colorado’s Old Town area, and the owner says many of his customers’ cars have been towed in recent months from the neighboring apartment complex.
There are signs posted between the apartment complex and the business stating that the land is private and requires permission to park there, but the signage is not clear on the side of the apartment complex. But for anyone visiting the area for the first time, it can be confusing because there is no signage on the east side of the parking lot next to the tattoo shop. The land belongs to the apartment complex, but that tattoo shop doesn’t want to put signs on another pre-existing mural to make that clear.
The tattoo shop owner had a mural painted on the roof of his business that showed cartoon-style male genitalia doing activities such as driving a car and riding a hot air balloon. WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGE: You can see a blurry version of the mural by clicking here.
On Friday, the owner of the tattoo shop told 11 News they are now communicating with the property management company about the mural, along with the parking situation, and it appears the situation has been resolved. 11 News received updates from David Brown, the owner of the business, but has yet to hear from the apartment complex’s property management company about the alleged settlement.
Brown told 11 News if the apartment complex simply marked the spots as private parking on the asphalt, the issue would be resolved.
Below are the conversations Brown shared with 11 News:
Brown shared the response from an apparent representative of the apartment complex:
Communication continued and it appears that the property management company will mark the individual spots as private parking and Brown is expected to paint over the murals with an elastomeric paint they ordered.
A timeline for when the parking spaces will be marked and when the mural will be painted was not available.
11 News has not heard from a representative with the property management company for the apartment complex since the first story aired, despite multiple contacts.
ORIGINAL STORY PUBLISHED 10/26/24:
Parking disputes aren’t out of the ordinary, but one Colorado Springs business owner’s reaction is gaining a lot of attention online and sparking some controversy.
WARNING: Some details in this article may be considered offensive given the nature of the mural. An unedited version of the infamous mural can be viewed at a link at the bottom of this article.
Fallen Heroes Tattoo & Piercing owner David Brown says the problems with a neighboring apartment complex started a few months ago. His business is located east of Old Colorado City in Colorado Springs. Next to Brown’s business is a five-story apartment complex. The parking situation is not ideal for the complex or Brown’s business, with a small lot behind the many businesses Brown shares the building with and several spots on the street off of Colorado Avenue.
There is an alley between the two buildings, but the parking spaces directly across from the west side of Fallen Heroes belong to the apartment complex and are parking only. There are signs on the side of the apartment complex that say the lot is private parking by permit only, but there are no signs on the Fallen Heroes building. Employees say they don’t want to hang signs over a pre-existing mural advertising their store.
Brown claims that over the course of about four months, 30 to 40 of his customers had their vehicles towed from the lot that has private parking signs, but not on the side adjacent to Brown’s building.
Brown believes the apartment complex could do more to prevent the tow.
In response to allegations that the neighboring apartment complex was responsible for the recall, Brown had painted a massive mural of male genitalia on his roof and posted the process on Instagram.
“A new apartment complex just opened near the store. They have towed all of our customers vehicles along with other customers from nearby businesses, we tried to play fair but now we are going to fight the ad*** mural,” Brown posted in the social media video.
Some residents of the apartment complex that 11 News spoke with didn’t even know the purpose of the mural.
“It was disturbing,” explained one anonymous resident. “I don’t have children or anything, I’m 40 years old. but even as an adult, I don’t want to look out the window, I have a nice view of the city center because I’m on the east side.”
The mural is a cartoon style personifying the male genitalia. There are more than a dozen of these genitals on the roof, one riding a hot air balloon, another on a bicycle and a coupe car. KKTV 11 News is choosing not to share some other salacious details of the mural, but an unedited version can be viewed by accessing a link at the bottom of this article.
“I can understand the confusion of people who park by the building,” Brown said. “It would make sense to me, the dots look like they are part of the building. No bullet points or anything like that. I can’t blame anyone who would accidentally park there for either spot.”
Brown isn’t blaming the towing company and says he understands they have a job to do.
There is a fairly new Colorado law when it comes to “non-consensual” vehicle towing. By law, towing companies are now required to give 24 hours notice before towing a vehicle from private residential property, but a vehicle can be towed immediately and without warning in the following situations:
- The residential lot requires a parking permit but the vehicle does not have one or the permit is not visible or valid.
- The vehicle is parked in a fire lane or in a parking space designated by another person.
- The vehicle blocks a road or a road.
- Among other new requirements, a towing carrier must release a vehicle if the vehicle owner pays the lesser of 15% of the total charges, or $60, and agrees to pay the remaining balance at a later date. Towing carriers are also required to release a vehicle free of charge upon request if it is still on the private property where it was parked.
The towing company representing the apartment complex is enforcing the law based on the fact that this lot requires a permit.
When asked why Fallen Heroes employees don’t tell their customers about the private plot when they enter the store, they explained that the way their store operates they don’t always have the option.
A representative of the property management company for the apartment complex sent KKTV 11 News the following text message:
“Graffiti
At this time, we do not have much to comment about the situation at 532. We are actively working with code enforcement and the city to address this issue. It is important to note that the parking lot between Fallen Heroes and 532 is private property, owned by 532, and is reserved for permit parking for its residents. The neighboring building has no legal access to this plot.”
Konrad Lipka with property on the Boardwalk”
“If the dots were individually labeled, I think we’d have zero problem,” Brown added.
11 News is trying to connect Lipka with Brown. Brown says the dispute could be resolved if the apartment complex paints the parking spots.
11 News had follow-up questions for Lipka, but we have not heard back since we sent the questions Wednesday.
GRAPHIC WARNING:
Click here to see the original Instagram post showing the blurry mural.
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