Family wakes up to racist graffiti on house, vehicle

CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. — A metro Atlanta husband and wife say they woke up with racist graffiti all over their home.

Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes spoke with the couple, who say this isn't the first time they've had trouble.

They said two months ago, their dog was poisoned, and now, racist graffiti appeared at their home.

It was on the mailbox, their trucks and the house.

A school bus driver with a bus full of children reported the graffiti to police Wednesday morning.

"What hurt me (is) the school kids saw the writing," victim Jimmie Strickland said.

"KKK," "whites only" and "get the *bleep* out of Bowdon," were spray-painted all over Dwight and Jimmie Strickland's property.

They are the only black family in the neighborhood.

"Mainly, I thought of my grandkids. If they would've saw that, it would've ... (hurt) them more than it would've hurt me," Jimmie Strickland said.

Jimmie Strickland said she heard the spray paint cans at 5 a.m.

“I heard the shaking, the bock, bock, bock,” Jimmie Strickland said. “I got up, but I didn't go outside.”

She didn't see what someone did to her house until Bowdon police Chief Mark Brock knocked on their door.

JimmieStrickland knows the chief well since they grew up together in Bowdon.

“He's really mad,” Jimmie Strickland said.

Back in December, the Strickland's dog mysteriously died.

The veterinarian told them their German shepherd was poisoned.

“It's just dirty to come in your yard . That dog wasn't messing with you,” Dwight Strickland said.

Friends are telling the couple to get a home surveillance system because there's probably more to come.

“They said, 'Dwight, they're probably coming back,'” Dwight Strickland said.

WSBTV