Transgender Woman's Car Vandalized With Hate Speech
DENVER (CBS4) - Denver police are investigating after a transgender woman found her vehicle tagged with hate messages.
Amber Timmons had only one word to describe the messages left scrawled across her SUV.
"Total shock, complete and utter shock. Iit took me a good 15 minutes to recover from that," Timmons said.
Timmons, a transgender woman, lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood near 13th Avenue and Humboldt Street in Denver. She says she woke up Wednesday morning to find swastikas and a number of hate words spray painted onto her vehicle.
"The really offensive word 'tranny' was written across the passenger side, really big. It also referred to being gay and to die," Timmons said.
After first calling Denver police to report the vandalism, Timmons snapped photos and almost immediately took to social media sharing her story and expressing her concerns about one word in particular.
"All over the hood was the word 'Trump,' so you immediately associate the two, with it being Trump's election," she explained.
Friends and neighbors saw what happened and started showing up at her home, helping to scrub the vehicle clean.
Timmons says while the attack is extremely personal, the response and notes that read "you are loved" that replaced the hateful graffiti, are encouraging.
"We got the hate off, we erased the hate," Timmons said.
Recently a man in Boulder posted a similar photo of hate speech painted on his vehicle. According to the Boulder Daily Camera, one of their reporters spoke with that man, and he reportedly admits to doing that himself.
Denver police say Timmons' case is an active investigation.
Karen Morfitt Joined the CBS4 team as a reporter in 2013. She covers a variety of stories in and around metro Denver. Connect with her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @karenmorfitt or email her tips.