Vallejo man arrested for painting crosswalk

Heather Ishimaru

VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- A Vallejo man is in jail after taking pedestrian safety into his own hands. He was arrested for painting a crosswalk on Illinois Street at Sonoma Boulevard, right in front of his house.

A sandy swath across Sonoma Boulevard is the ghost of a former crosswalk -- a short-lived and illegal one. Anthony Cardenas, 52, was arrested for felony vandalism Thursday morning.

"He admitted freely that he had painted the crosswalk and he'd done what he thought was correct for the neighborhood," said Vallejo Police Sgt. Herman Robinson.

The intersection of Sonoma and Illinois has three legal crosswalks, but for some reason not a fourth. Cardenas lives near the corner and it would make his walk across the street easier, but Caltrans calls the shots on crosswalks, because Sonoma Boulevard is also State Route 29.

"Caltrans is responsible for painting the sidewalks and they do surveys from time to time and they decide where there's going to be the crosswalks," said Robinson.

Neighbor Guy Sanchez saw Cardenas out painting at 5 a.m. a couple weeks ago.

"I just thought maybe it was one of the citizens here that wanted to take care of that for the city of Vallejo," said Sanchez. He was surprised to hear Cardenas was arrested. "He was? Wow, I didn't know that."

When asked if Sanchez would like to see a crosswalk in the same area Cardenas painted it, he said, "Yeah, it's needed, it's needed."

The Vallejo Police Department says it will still cost Caltrans about $1,000 to finish repairing the intersection.

Cardenas is set to be arraigned Tuesday.