Vandals paint swastikas on home, neighbors step in to help

PHOENIX (KYMA, KPHO/KTVK) -- A Phoenix woman got a helping hand from some neighbors after vandals defaced her home with swastikas.

Alba Rodriguez, who lives in the Willo Historic Neighborhood in central Phoenix, said she and her fiancée were out of town when it happened. She was first alerted when she started getting notifications that someone kept ringing her doorbell.

She texted some neighbors to see if anything was going on. "They said 'someone came and tagged your home,'" she recalls. "'They tagged swastikas on your house.'"

Neighbors then sent her pictures of the vandalism. "We just couldn't believe it," she said. She also said she's baffled about why they were targeted, since Willo is such a good community and a diverse neighborhood.

"I felt targeted," she said. "I felt unsafe."

But when community members found out what happened, they jumped in to help. One neighbor contacted the Extra Mile Painting Company, who offered to supply the paint at cost. Then neighbors came over to help to paint over the swastikas.

Jeremy Schachter lives nearby and is a board member in the Willo neighborhood. "I am of the Jewish faith and that vile symbol hits home to me," he said. "As soon as I saw that, I was disgusted by the vile image, especially in the neighborhood of Willo, where we're so tolerant of diversity; we embrace differences. That's what makes us so great."

"This not acceptable in our neighborhood and not acceptable in our country," Schachter continued. "I just wanted to do something good... I just felt like I just needed to do something immediately, because we can not tolerate this."

No other homes in the area were vandalized.