The mayor of Traverse City says an F-150 pickup parked in his driveway was vandalized over the weekend. Michael Estes says he was out of town over the weekend and discovered the damage Sunday at about 9:00pm.
“Three sides of the vehicle were filled with black, spray-painted graffiti,” he says. “And very derogatory comments.”
Estes and his wife Rhonda live on a dead-end street close to the edge of the city limits on the Old Mission Peninsula. The mayor says there has been recent crime in the neighborhood, but he is not aware of any other victims over the weekend. It leaves him wondering if he was targeted.
“When someone just puts graffiti all over your truck in spray paint, that’s pure hatred,” he says. “I don’t know where it comes from.”
Estes says it also looks like 600 dollars worth of tickets to the annual Barbeque at Northwestern Michigan College were taken from the mailbox. He bought them to pass out to residents and staff at area group homes.
“I’ve provided all the information I can to the police department and I am hopeful they will find whoever did this so they will not do it to anybody else,” he says.