DETROIT – The owner of Cafe d'Mongo's Speakeasy was beaten Monday night when he found vandals spray-painting a downtown Detroit synagogue.
Larry Mongo's cafe has been operating in downtown Detroit since 1984. Lately, business owners in the area have banded together in an effort to keep graffiti taggers away.
"I clean the building, paint and clean. Then they come back during the week two at a time. Then we get tickets that we have to pay," Mongo said.
On Monday night, the taggers were back at it. They were on the roof trying to deface the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue.
"I heard this boom, boom, boom. And my wife said, 'Larry, somebody's up on the roof," Mongo said.
He met the taggers on his roof.
"They came flying down here, they hit me, knocked me over and man, we were out here tussling," Mongo said.
He was left beaten, bruised and bloody.
"My knees and stuff are all swollen, bloody," he said.
However, it's going to take more than a few scratches to drive Mongo away. He is telling taggers to beware because he is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the mess off of the buildings.
"First time and the last time I ever got beat up, now I am going to buy me another gun. I'm going to keep two guns now," Mongo said.