A San Pedro family remains shaken after waking up to find their car vandalized with a racial slur and Swastikas.
“I couldn’t believe this happened to me in San Pedro,” said Reginald Scott, the victim.
Scott said his red Ford Mustang was vandalized sometime between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
The suspect used black spray paint to leave a large message across one side of the car saying, “Merry Christmas” followed by the N-word.
The other side was also painted across with indiscernible lettering. Swastikas were painted onto the bumper and the vehicle’s tires were slashed.
Scott believes the vandalism may be in retaliation for parking in front of someone’s house.
“Even if you’re parked where you’re not supposed to be, I don’t think that gives you the right to spray paint somebody’s car and call them a racial slur,” said Scott’s son. “That’s hurtful.”
“It’s just wrong because they flattened the tires, they damaged it,” said Paul Frias, the victim’s neighbor. “It’s just something you don’t want to see every day because ‘What if that could’ve been my vehicle?’”
Scott said, unfortunately, he’s been targeted in a similar manner twice before including someone setting his truck on fire around two years ago.
In another incident during Halloween, Scott said vandals had “cut my truck tires and sprayed some stuff all over it to where I think, ‘They’re starting to up it and we’re starting to get scared being around here.”
Scott said his wife is very concerned for her family’s safety amid the rising incidents of targeted vandalism.
“She doesn’t want the doors to be unlocked,” Scott said. “She’s pretty much on high alert.”
Scott said he filed a police report of the vandalism and hopes the suspects are caught soon. However, his family remains shaken and said it might be time to move out of San Pedro and relocate to a safer town.
A GoFundMe page created to help the Scott family during this time can be found here.
L.A. city councilmember Tim McOsker released a statement on the incident, saying:
“I have spoken to LAPD’s Harbor Division leadership and we are very clear that whoever defaced Mr. Scott’s car is to be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, specifically as a hate crime. The words and symbols spray-painted on the car cause real, tangible terror and harm to our neighbors and our community. I do not take this lightly. I have spoken to Mr. and Mrs. Scott to offer my support as they go through this unimaginable pain that their family is dealing with at this time. This crime is hateful, deplorable and has no place here in the 15th Council District or anywhere.”