A LGBTQ woman in San Diego who in June 2022 put up a rainbow-colored pride fence at the edge of her backyard finally discovered who may have been vandalizing it for years on end.
Brittany Fuller, who lives in the Scripps Ranch neighborhood, was hanging out Saturday with her partner in their backyard when both of them heard a loud noise.
They quickly reviewed their home surveillance video, which showed two teens on an electric bike throwing apples and other fruits at the pride fence.
Fuller, who identifies as pansexual, managed to catch up with the young kids at a nearby crosswalk.
Police were called but before they arrived, Fuller said she asked them why they vandalized the fence. She said their response was ‘absolutely soul-shattering.’
‘So these kids told me that within the middle school, there are groups of kids that actively and openly hate LGBTQ kids. They go as far as to paying people to deface the pride fence,’ Fuller told ABC 10 San Diego.
Fuller said the teens claimed they were paid $20 to vandalize the fence. They later told police the same thing, the local outlet reported.
‘I couldn’t breathe. I felt like someone sucker-punched me,’ Fuller said, recalling her reaction to the kids’ alleged rationale.
Pictured: Brittany Fuller’s pride fence in Scripps Ranch. She painted it in June 2022, but the local LGBTQ land mark has been a target for vandals ever since
Over the last two or so years, the fence has been hit with paint, mustard, ketchup, eggs and even feces
Fuller, who leads the Scripps Ranch Pride Council, was appalled at the kids’ rationale for vandalizing the fence
‘Just the idea of a child accepting money to hate someone is awful and I can’t understand how we are here and how this is happening,’ she added.
Fuller, who leads the Scripps Ranch Pride Council, said the two kids were not arrested and instead released to their parents.
However, police are continuing to investigate whether what the teens did is connected to the nearly 20 incidents of vandalism against the fence.
Police have previously indicated that they are investigating these incidents as possible hate crimes.
Over the last two or so years, the fence has been hit with paint, mustard, ketchup, eggs and even feces. Pride flags placed along a nearby street were also ripped out and bent sometime in July 2023.
Two days after Christmas, vandals threw roughly a dozen eggs at the fence.
They upped the ante after New Year’s, when they sliced a hole in a LGBTQ-styled inflatable Christmas tree on her property, causing it to deflate.
The home of another woman in the neighborhood who is on the Scripps Ranch Pride Council has had people vandalizing her actual home, banging on her door and throwing water balloons at it.
The woman, who chose to only use her first name, Stacy, told ABC 10 that she received threatening phone calls prior to and after the incident.
‘This is hate at human beings and who they are and what represents them and that’s uncalled for,’ Fuller said at the time.
