Racist slur scratched on cars by vandals in Halesowen
A racist slur has been scratched into 17 cars in neighbouring streets in a Black Country town, sparking a police investigation.
Car doors, bonnets and roofs have been targeted with the offensive word etched into the bodywork in Meadow Road, Olive Lane, Ridgefield Road, Stewarts Road and Dudley Road in Halesowen.
Police say they believe a 'group of young men' may have been responsible for the incident as they continue to scrawl through CCTV.
Councillor Stuart Henley, who represents the Halesowen North ward, expressed his outrage at the incident.
He said: "There has been a large number of cars damaged by someone in Halesowen North.
"These cars have been scratched with the word 'p***' on them.
"The culprits went on to commit this disgusting crime throughout the night.
"We think they were spotted in the early hours of the morning by a resident in Meadow Road.
"This crime happened in surrounding roads too, one vehicle I've also had reported to myself had its tyres slashed.
"The police resources are limited to be everywhere so we need to be the eyes and ears for them.
"We need any information on any crime to be passed onto them as soon as possible so they can act on it straight away or build up evidence to act on it later on."
The cars were vandalised between 1am and 3am on May 1.
Vandals scratched the side of Paul Stevenson's car and wrote a racist slur on his roof, which he has had to cover up using tape. The mark stretched right down the left hand side of his car, from above his front passenger wheel to near his rear tail light.
Mr Stevenson, aged 55, estimates the damage will cost him £1,200 to repair.
He said: "People are scared about what is going on around here, they don't know who is coming into the street.
"Everybody is getting to the stage where they don't want to live around here anymore.
"I think it is disgraceful what has taken place."
Inspector Laura Jones, from Dudley Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: "We are appealing for information as we continue our investigations into the damage.
"CCTV has been trawled and we still continue to investigate why these cars were targeted although at this stage the motive remains unclear.
"We believe that a group of young men may have been responsible and we would welcome anyone with further information as to the identity of this group to contact us to enable progression of the investigation.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact West Midlands Police by calling 101 and quoting reference 20DY/ 88896A/17
