Child’s chalk doodle draws graffiti citation

updated 9:10 p.m. ET Oct. 13, 2007

NEW YORK - Chalk it up to New York City's crackdown on graffiti.

A 6-year-old child's chalk sketches on her family's stoop brought her parents a graffiti-removal notice that threatened a $300 fine.

First-grader Natalie Shea said her mom got a ticket for graffiti and it wasn't even graffiti.

"It was art, very nice art," Natalie said.

But a neighbor in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood saw it differently and dialed the complaint line.

The family was sent a form letter of complaint giving the family 45 days to clean up the graffiti.

Natalie's mom said she'll act more quickly to wash off the doodles in the future.

As for the offending blue flower, it was erased by a heavy rain.

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