The NYPD’s hate crimes unit is investigating after a Staten Island man woke up to find racial slurs and curses etched into his car earlier this week.
The 42-year-old man reported the incident to police on Tuesday after he found the words “[expletive] Get Out” on the vehicle’s hood and “Move B—-“ scratched onto the trunk, police said.
It remains unclear what time the car was vandalized or if surveillance video captured the crime, according to cops.
Annette Siewert, who claims to be a neighbor of the victim, said the father of four has been living on Sneden Avenue in the Annadale neighborhood for over a year.
“He’s a stand-up guy who takes care of his family,” Siewert, wrote on a GoFundMe page that she started to help pay for repairs to the car. “We are all at a loss for words.”
Siewert said the victim’s insurance company would cover the repair but that there was a $1,000 deductible, which was what prompted her to create the fundraising page.
“This expense is not only unexpected but it shouldn’t be his responsibility,” she wrote.
More than $3,400 had been raised, as of Friday evening. But a Staten Island auto repair shop had also stepped up and offered to make the repairs at no cost, Siewert said.
“The car’s repair is underway with additional services ‘on the house’ at Jo Jo’s Auto Repair,” she wrote in an update to the GoFundMe page on Friday, adding that the donations would now go toward a family vacation for the victim and his children. “Our goal has more than tripled in donations and the outreach has touched the lives of so many.”
So far, there has been no arrest in the case, police said. The investigation is ongoing.
