Oklahoma City police are searching for a suspect after a swastika was cut into a man’s lawn.
Homeowner Stan Sells told KOCO he filed a police report earlier this week after he woke up on Tuesday to find the Nazi symbol in his grass.
“I came out here yesterday morning and I was out mowing, I looked down and saw that, and kind of got bewildered,” Sells, who is not Jewish, said Wednesday.
He said he notified both the local police and the FBI because the vandalism could be described as a hate crime.
“It’s not kids, because of the way they cut it,” he explained. “It’s precision. Someone knew what they were doing. It disgusts me. People like that shouldn’t be around.”
He said to the Associated Press on Thursday that the swastika wasn’t visible from the road, but could be seen from his porch, leading him to think it was done by a neighbor with whom he had a dispute.
“I think I know who did it, but I ain’t got no proof,” Sells, 67, said. “It’s a neighbor I haven’t gotten along with for several years.”
He said his home security camera did not record video of the vandalism because it was too dark.
Stacy Cushing, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of Texoma, told the station that antisemitic incidents were “on the rise locally, regionally, and nationally.” However, both the Oklahoma City police and the FBI declined to characterize the incident as a hate crime.