LYNCHBURG, Va. – A Lynchburg woman needs help finding the people she says ruined her pride flag and tried to break into her home this week. She caught it all on camera.
Stephanie Hart has lived in her Hill City home near E.C. Glass High School for two years now. She says it’s always felt like a safe place. Adding, she has several visible cameras, police patrol the area frequently and it’s on a main road.
However, when she came home Wednesday night after getting dinner with her partner, she knew right away something was wrong.
“I pulled up and I saw a window screen laying on the ground. I thought that was strange,” Hart says. “My first thought was maybe a strong wind came through. It’s an old house. Then I noticed my flag was gone too.”
Hart says she was afraid that whoever had been messing with her house was still around, so she decided to take a look at her camera footage. She learned three young boys had been lurking around the home with hoods up and masks on.
They knocked at the door, pulled at the window screens and before taking off they ripped Hart’s pride flag from its stand and threw it.
“I didn’t officially come out until 2019 and it took so long to own that,” she says with tears in her eyes. “It took even more courage to put that flag on my porch. To have it ripped down is awful.”
For Hart, the flag represents new-found safety and freedom. Fearful of the young boys’ intentions, she filed a report with the Lynchburg Police Department.
Police say an officer is working on the case. They’ve found one kid and the investigating officer is working with the school resource officer from E.C. Glass to find the others.
Police say Hart can press charges for property damage, which is a misdemeanor.
“You may think you just broke a flag pole or a window seal,” Hart said. “To me, you just broke my sense of safety and the one place in the whole world that is my safe place.”
Hart says she questions if her home is still a safe place for her and her 10-year-old son.
While she doesn’t want to get anyone in trouble, she does want accountability so that this doesn’t happen again or to anyone else.
If you have any information about this ongoing investigation, call the Lynchburg Police Department at 434-455-6050.