The usually quiet city of Belmont experienced an unusually unpleasant night in the last few days of March.
Between the night of March 29 and the morning of March 30, six vehicles and two homes were vandalized on Belmont Canyon Road. The suspect or suspects are currently unknown.
The vandals tagged houses and cars with strange symbols, all of which were written with white spray paint. The garage doors and fences of some houses were tagged, along with the hoods, doors, and rears of some cars. The emblems of several cars were also pried off.
“We walked out that morning to police taking pictures of the house writing a report of the vandalism,” said Becky Scott, the owner of one of the vandalized houses.
Belmont has no known gangs. However, the Belmont police have identified and linked some of the vandalism to a potential gang.
“One of the vehicles had ‘X4’ spray painted on the hood and driver’s door and another vehicle had ‘Norte’ spray painted on the rear of the vehicle. ‘X4’ and ‘Norte’ are common signs for the Norteño street gang,” said Corporal Mike Thompson of the Belmont Police Department.
Neighborhoods such as this are rarely targeted for vandalism in Belmont so it came as a shock to most when they learned of the act.
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood my whole life and nothing like this has happened around here,” said Izzy Burguera, a junior at Carlmont.
After residents had taken in the unusual occurrence, they came together and cleaned up all the vandalism by the end of the day.
“We didn’t want any other gangs to see and potentially start a conflict,” Scott said.
Still, the incident was not over. Almost simultaneously, vandalism similar to Belmont’s occurred in the early morning of March 30 in San Bruno.
“It is possible the two incidents are related, as some of the vandalism appears similar. Belmont PD and San Bruno PD have been working together to compare investigations,” Thompson said.
However, there are many different gangs that use the name Norteño throughout Northern California, making it difficult to pinpoint suspects.
During the San Bruno vandalism, a home security camera captured a picture of a suspect and a car, but authorities have not determined the identity of the suspect or the license plate of the car at this time. The car appears to be 2001-2003 gray Toyota Prius.
The motives for these incidents is still unknown and under further investigation. The Belmont Police Department is currently looking into every tip and new development in the case to identify any suspects.
“After something like this, when I walk out of my house each morning it makes me wonder: This didn’t happen again, did it?” Scott said.
