Southern House, the last of the three Meridian Waterside apartment blocks overlooking the River Itchen, currently stands incomplete after the property developer collapsed.
This has not deterred opportunistic vandals, who appeared to have climbed the scaffolding and painted the ‘DMOE’ graffiti tag on the building a couple of weeks ago.
The letters MOE, which were on each floor below the D, appear to have since been scrubbed off. But the D remains.
Residents across Southampton, Hedge End, Eastleigh, and Portsmouth might be familiar with the graffiti tag DMOE, as it has cropped up in areas across the south.
As reported in the Echo last year, the police are working hard to catch the culprits of the DMOE graffiti tag.
Speaking last year, a spokesperson for the force gave a statement on the taggings.
They said: “Ultimately graffiti falls under the offence of criminal damage and like any criminal offence, we would always encourage you to report that to us.
“We do not clean up the graffiti, but we do actively scope the area for CCTV, speaking with residents and ultimately look to positively ID the individuals committing the offence.”