ROWLAND HEIGHTS : Hate Symbols Scrawled in Vandalism, Theft at Home
A Taiwanese family returned to their Rowland Heights house from a three-week vacation to find “KKK,” a swastika and other symbols burned into their carpet, authorities said.
Stephen Ko, 43, who had been away with his wife and two children, reported that vandals also stole a computer game and baseball card collection belonging to 15-year-old Howard Ko and singed the strings of his violin.
An anarchist symbol, the word Satan and a pentagram were singed into the rug with “an unknown chemical and/or fire,” according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Lynn Judes.
The incident is being treated as an arson, burglary and civil rights violation, Judes said. He said it was probably the work of teen-age vandals, however, and not any organized hate group.
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