Members of New Light Church Church in Tampa said for the past year they’ve had to look over their shoulder. That’s because a neighbor who lives across the street from the church has taken it upon herself to terrorize their place of worship.
The vandalism started in April 2014.
Surveillance pictures show an elderly woman dumping grass clippings on the front door of the church. From there, Julius An, the Youth Pastor, said it only got worse.
“She smoothered the front door with feces,” An said. “ I touched it, it was pretty nasty.”
The fecal matter was under the front of the door when An went to open it early one Monday morning. This week one of the church buildings was tagged with graffiti that read “clean the drains.”
“I mowed the grass for six hours the other day,” An said.
The church owns a property across the street that backs up to the neighbors property. Recently, An admits the city of Tampa told them they need to do a better job maintaining the property by cutting the grass and making sure all of the drains were clear. An said they have been doing that and just cut the grass. But, all of their efforts according to An aren’t enough.
“We tried to talk to her, it only got worse,” An said. “It’s (grass) been wet and she has been complaining about it, we have been doing what she is telling us and we respected her and everything.”
Multiple attempts to talk to the woman neighbors identified to ABC Action News were not successful.
“Hopefully she doesn't do any more harm than this,” An said. “Even though it is vandalizing it is still a crime I don't know what hat she'll do next. This is the second time this week had to call authorities we don't want to send her to jail, we just want her to stop. This is a house of God. It's not a place to be messed with.”
