Residents in a northwest Reno neighborhood woke up to an unwanted makeover on Monday morning.
Some homeowners on Breckenridge Way found graffiti on their cars.
"I saw that there was graffiti on the car across the street, and then as I got closer I could see what it said, and of course immediately it was very upsetting,” says resident Annie Munn.
What's usually a quiet neighborhood had more than three cars were vandalized.
"This is a fluke in this neighborhood. It's not something that this neighborhood sees very often,” says Eric Friberg, Regional Gang Unit.
Munn adds, "We try to watch for taggers and let Washoe County Sheriff's Department know if we see any tagging going on. And then we just try to get rid of the tagging right away because it just encourages that type of behavior."
Several cars had orange spray paint-- with vulgar language spraypainted on them.
"There's some hate aspects of it that we're looking into,” says Friberg.
Another resident told us, "Everybody should be offended by it. There are words on there that I would never say and unfortunately my kids were exposed to it."
And now the Regional Gang Unit is investigating the incident.
"We'll be looking into it, we have a full-time graffiti detective that investigates crimes like this and he'll be assisting with gang unit with working on this."
Officials say it's important to report any kind of suspicious activity.
"I think you know a lot of times people don't know, what to do. Well, the very first thing is be supportive of each other, and then let the police know,” says Munn.
And police and residents have a message for the suspect or suspects.
"What's been done is illegal, and it can raise into a serious crime based on just the damage to property. It's costing people money to remove paint from their property, thousands of dollars."
Munn adds, "Change what you're doing in your life, you are going in the wrong direction.”
If you see anything suspicious in your neighborhood, or if you have any information that can help police, you can call the Reno Police Department's non-emergency line or Secret Witness at 775-322-4900. You will remain anonymous
