Hate Messages Left in Historic Home : Vandalism: Intruders spray-paint epithets in a homosexual couple’s mansion in the West Adams district.

Bob Bowerman and Penn Barrosse spent Thursday trying to calculate the damages.

Ketchup, spaghetti sauce, mustard and almost any other liquids that burglars could find in the refrigerator were splattered through the gay couple’s 21-room, three-story mansion in the historic West Adams district.

More troubling, though, were the hate messages and other epithets spray-painted in the house.

“There is yellow spray-paint on the furniture, woodwork, mirrors, paintings,” said Bowerman, 37, an executive at Playboy Entertainment. “There is also what looks like a tag--RF--on a large curio cabinet.”

Bowerman and Barrosse, 40, a PacBell technician, have lived in the neighborhood for 10 years. They have spent more than $1 million refurnishing and restoring the home, built by an organizer of the old Los Angeles Angels, who played in the Pacific Coast League, Bowerman said.

The house has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, he said.

Burglars who broke into the house and tripped an alarm about noon Wednesday sprayed paint over restored mahogany and oak woodwork and damaged an original chandelier, Bowerman said. The alarm company called police, but officers reported a false alarm after finding no signs of forced entry, Bowerman said.

Barrosse went to the house at 1:30 p.m., reset the alarm and left, apparently locking in the burglars, Bowerman said.

“No one could have entered again without setting off the alarm,” Bowerman said.

When Barrosse returned at 4:30 p.m., he heard footsteps upstairs, but he was knocked unconscious when he slipped on spaghetti sauce on the stairs and fell, Bowerman said.

Barrosse’s return apparently frightened the burglars, who left without taking television sets, a compact disc player, a compact stereo and jewelry that had been “assembled and was ready to be taken out the back door,” Bowerman said.

Bowerman said he considers the burglary and vandalism a hate crime directed at him and Barrosse because of their sexual orientation. He said a teen-ager attempted to break into the house two weeks ago, but he and Barrosse were able to capture him and hold him for police.