Felipe Guttierez’s home in Kennedale.
Tarrant County Stonewall Democrats President Felipe Guttierez had his gay Pride flag stolen from his Kennedale home last night, but he helped track down the vandals.
Guttierez said he was sitting in his home office around 8 p.m. Wednesday when he decided to go outside to see how much it had rained. The office is near the front of his home, so when he got up he saw a teen running in his yard. The teen jumped in a nearby car.
Guttierez said his flag was missing and flag pole was broken when he went outside. But he jumped in his car and followed the car of four teens. He wrote down the license plate number and filed a police report.
This morning a detective called him and said he’d spoken to the teens. Two of them admitted to planning to steal the flag and dump it in a ditch. He will meet the teens at the police station this afternoon to get the flag back and accept their apology.
He said he won’t be filing charges, “but I am going to lecture them.”
Guttierez said he’s very active in his neighborhood and his neighbors know he’s gay. He rarely puts up his Pride flag, which he displayed throughout June this year. He said he thinks the incident occurred because the teens aren’t educated and hopes they don’t target anyone else in the future after they talk and apologize.
“I’ll have them issue an apology and we’ll all go on our way,” he said.
Kennedale is in southeast Tarrant County.
