Vandals hit a string of homes in Commerce Township and it forces neighbors to fight back

COMMERCE TWP., (Mich.) WXYZ - Imagine waking up to forty feet of obscene gestures spray painted on your drive way like Joe Miskell and his wife did Sunday morning in Commerce Township.

“Shock.  We saw the writing on the pavement, we checked to see if vehicles were damaged or the house was damaged,” said Miskell.

That’s when they turned around and saw a racial word spray painted in huge silver letters across the garage door.

“As long as they were quiet, it didn’t disturb us.  We had our windows open, it was a cool night, and we didn’t hear a sound from them,” said Miskell.

And no one heard the troublemakers breaking out the windows of Sue Shotwell’s truck.  She lives a few doors down on Golf Lane.

“We looked and we saw huge boulders in the truck.  They broke all the windows out of our truck and it’s a newer truck and it’s cost us lots of money in deductibles to fix it,” said Shotwell.

A third neighbor had part of her radio stolen out of her jeep that same night.  A fourth neighbor found a spray painted driveway as well.  Shotwell said they are scared the vandalism could escalate.

“There is a lot of elderly people that live on this street and we don’t need people to be scared that people are going to be trying to get in their homes or hurt them or anything else,” said Shotwell.

In case the vandals up the ante, some residents have installed surveillance cameras.

“Right in the window right there.  I have two of them actually, so, we’ll see,” said Rich Buscemi.

Others like Miskell have banded people on the block together to form a neighborhood watch.

Most of the neighbors who were hit have motion sensors on their lights but that did not seem to scare the vandals away.

Whoever did this also spray painted some of the same symbols out in the middle of Union Lake Road, a main road that runs through the township.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s department said they have extra cars patrolling the area. 

Crime Stoppers is also offering a $1,000 reward for information about the vandalism that leads to an arrest.  Tips can be anonymous, call 1-800-SPEAK UP.