SPRINGFIELD, MI. — Vandalism hit a neighborhood in Springfield over the weekend. Residents woke up to their homes not how they left them, and the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office believes juveniles may be responsible.
Some residents found parts of their homes vandalized, and their cars spray painted, while others woke up to a swastika painted on their garage.
"I stepped outside and looked and said, 'Wow, what's going on?'" Duane Jackson recalled his reaction when he saw what was done to his home.
Like several residents in the Upton Park area, Jackson and his mother, Jeanne Roché, found their homes vandalized. They've lived here since the 60's and say this incident is a shocking and disturbing first.
"This is just pure hate," he said.
The neighborhood is usually quiet, but Jackson says that lately, it has been the complete opposite, referring to shots fired last week involving a group of teens.
"This, you know, starts making you wonder, you know, every time you step out your door," he told FOX 17.
Some residents had swastikas spray painted on their property, while others were tagged with gang signs.
"We've reached out to different gang units in the area to get some type of assistance with this to help identify. But at this point, we're not real familiar with what that gang affiliation is," Lt. Curtis Smith with the Sheriff's Office told FOX 17.
On Sunday, they received four to five complaints of vandalism on Nettles Street. "We have collected items from the scene that hopefully down the road will lead to possible suspect information that we can move forward with," he said.
Lt. Smith believes it was a random act by juveniles, with no specific targets.
"This is really a good area. We haven't had really any tagging or vandalism like this in the past. So, we're looking into that as well, to see why this area was targeted," he said.
While the sheriff's office works to find who did this, Jackson and Roché will be putting up surveillance cameras. They're worried that next time won't be spray paint, but a bullet.
The situation is still be investigated, but whoever did it could face charged for malicious destruction of property.
