Communities Brace to Repel Intruders : Scrawled Anti-Semitic Slurs Shock a Quiet Neighborhood

Residents of a quiet, upper-middle-class Tierrasanta neighborhood say a recent spate of burglaries and vandalism--garages have been broken into, car windows shattered and rolls of toilet paper hurled across front lawns--had become annoying.

But Sunday night, residents say, the vandalism took an ugly turn as swastikas and the words “Kill Jews” were painted on a 1986 Jeep Cherokee near the intersection of Seda Drive and Calle de Vida.

About a block away, profanities were scrawled with apparently the same paint in the driveway and garage of a house in the 4500 block of Calle de Vida. At the corner of La Cuenta Drive and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, a truck had a swastika and profanities painted on its back window.

Quarrel Believed Cause

The owner of the vandalized Jeep could not be reached for comment, but the homeowner believes youths involved in a bitter quarrel with her teen-age daughter were responsible.

Detective Steve Chelby, of the San Diego Police Department’s Eastern Division, said the vandalism occurred between 11 p.m. Sunday and 3 a.m. Monday, when someone called police about the painting on the driveway. Chelby said detectives at the Eastern substation, where the initial probe will take place, had not received crime reports of the vandalism by late Monday.

“For all we know, it was a phantom in the night type of thing,” Chelby said. “It was some jerk with a spray can. Where do you start?”

But Beverly Stubbs, who lives in the vandalized home, said in a telephone interview that she believes that Serra High School classmates of her daughter, Michelle, were responsible for what happened Sunday night. Stubbs said Michelle and an unidentified classmate had a dispute about a year ago, and that the classmate and her boyfriend have harassed Michelle since.

‘Sick Feelings’

“I just want to get to the bottom of this,” Stubbs said, adding that she is not Jewish. “I think they were really focusing on our house, and with the extra spray-paint went on venting their sick feelings. It’s a little frightening.”

The latest incident coupled with the recent burglaries has piqued curiosity in the community. Several people stopped to look at the vandalized home Monday afternoon; others witnessed the anti-Semitic paintings while driving their children to school.

“I’m angry that that type of behavior has manifested itself in this type of anger and hatred,” Sylvia Keller, a Tierrasanta resident, said about the latest signs of vandalism. “My feeling is that this has gone past mischief.

“I saw that, and I thought, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”