A message was painted by Christy Stewart’s bike that read, “fuck you move your dike bike now.”
Claudia Friedman and Christy Stewart arrived at their Houston apartment complex Saturday night and found Stewart’s motorcycle covered in animal feces and urine.
Someone had painted “Fuck you move your dike bike now” on the concrete surrounding the bike. The bike cover was destroyed, but the bike was unharmed.
Stewart said she and Friedman left their apartment in the late afternoon to meet up with friends and returned to find the bike around 8 p.m. After having lived at the apartment for three years without any incidents, the couple was shocked by the vandalism.
Stewart said they reported the vandalism to Houston police, who are investigating it as a hate crime, but without surveillance cameras in the parking garage, the perpetrator is not likely to be found.
However, she said the writing looks like a female’s handwriting and she and her partner have some ideas of who is responsible based on past dirty looks at the complex.
“Without witnesses, no confrontations with anyone in the past, the police officer said there’s nothing we can do,” Stewart said.
Stewart and her partner then placed a sign on the bike to tell the vandals they wouldn’t move it, even after the vandalism.
But that didn’t stop the couple from taking a stand against the hateful message. They left the bike parked in the same spot and placed a sign above it that reads, “To the immature vandals…we are NOT moving our bike.”
“We stood our ground and said no,” she said.
They’ve received support from their neighbors, who Stewart said have made it clear vandalizing her bike was wrong.
“Everyone has been very supportive and disgusted,” she said. “I think the message has gotten out that they are the one in the wrong.”
Stewart said even though there weren’t witnesses or cameras to find the person who vandalized her bike, she said the situation has proved that what one ignorant person may think isn’t how the majority of her neighbors feel about her and her partner.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “I would say ignorance is the most violent force in society. But you can’t fix stupid.”
