Sandra Seawright, a resident of the Cripple Creek Farms North subdivision, awoke the morning of May 28 to find her driveway vandalized with offensive graffiti, including a racial slur and a swastika.

Her son, who lives with her, saw it first as he left for work at around 6:30 a.m. that morning.

“He said, ‘Mother, someone tagged us,’” she said. “I said, ‘Oh, God.’ It just took my breath away. This really upset me because my husband is disabled and we’re here quite a bit by ourselves.”

The family’s mailbox was also vandalized with black spray paint.

Seawright called the police and filed a report after she discovered the graffiti, but said she felt they could have done more.

“I think they could patrol more through here and when something’s reported, do something to try to find something,” she said. “They acted like it was no big deal. Well, it’s a misdemeanor.”

According to the Texas Penal Code Chapter 28, graffiti on property is classified as criminal mischief and can be filed as a misdemeanor A, B, C or state jail felony depending on monetary loss.

Chapter 12 of the Code states that if it is determined during court proceedings that the defendant intentionally selected the victim of the crime because of a bias or prejudice against a group, the charge could be enhanced to the next category of punishment.

The racial content of the graffiti was upsetting to Seawright, who, along with family members who reside at the home, are all of Caucasian descent.

“If they say that, then they’re a prejudice person. It doesn’t matter what color you are. That scares me,” she said.

She said deputies who responded to the call, told her “it’s just probably kids” and that the case was closed and nothing would come of it because she didn’t have a suspect.

“They said it was the last day of school and it was probably just going to get worse,” Seawright said.

Seawright has two elementary school-aged granddaughters who live with her at the home.

“They were upset when they came home from school, like, ‘Who would do that?’” Seawright said.

Three other homes on the same street were also hit the same night and had items stolen from their property, she said.

She added that she and her neighbors all have animals and are worried about their safety as well.

“We’re home most of the time and keep watch, but at night we’re asleep,” she said.

Representatives of the subdivision’s homeowner’s association were unable to be reached for comment on the story.

Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constable David Hill said that most graffiti that law enforcement comes across in the Magnolia area is gang-related.

“If we find someone doing that, they’ve got problems,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of graffiti. Usually what we see is gang-related.”

He said it is difficult to catch people who graffiti when there are no witnesses or suspects, but that officers make an extra effort to patrol around a home or business that is vandalized.

“The penalty that deals with the amount of dollar damage done, you’re talking about a large amount of money,” Hill said.

Seawright said she walks her granddaughters to and from the school bus and is now scared to let them walk freely up and down the street.

She said she and her son are planning to remove the graffiti using a sandblasting machine.

“Those kids who done it need to be scrubbing it off with their hands and knees,” she said.

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