Neighbors in the Colorado municipality of Longmont are banding together after someone began ripping down local residents’ Pride flags. The suspect also allegedly made threats against another person displaying a rainbow flag in front of their home.

Local resident Sheryl Colaur’s doorbell camera recently recorded footage of a man wearing a face covering who tore down a rainbow flag displayed on the front of her house. She said it’s the third time that it has happened to her, and each time, the vandal damages the flag pole that the rainbow banner has hung from, she told KCNC-TV. She also said that similar vandalism has happened to at least 10 other neighbors.

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“We had a lot of really high winds that weekend. So initially I thought that maybe the wind was so strong it took the flag away,” she told The Daily Times Call. “And then I looked closer at it, and the pole was pulled straight down. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not the wind.’”

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When her replacement Pride flag was vandalized too, she ordered even more, including a rainbow doormat, several mini flags for her front door, and a large banner stating, “Love always wins.”

“[The vandalosm is] making a move to put us away. To keep us out of the light,” she said of the local LGBTQ+ community and its supporters. “[The vandal] wants us to stay silent, wants to reduce our visibility as all.”

Flags all around the neighborhood have been ripped down.

“It’s a hate crime,” says local resident Mike McFerrin. He began a GoFundMe campaign to help neighbors replace their torn-down flags.

Another resident, Lindsey Bailey, said that while working in her garage, a random man riding a scooter past her house saw the rainbow flag flying in the front of her house and swore at her about how much they hated Pride month. Neighbors believe this man is the vandal who has been ripping down flags.

Bailey’s husband confronted the man while carrying a bat, and the man then said he would come back and harm him.

Neighbors have started posting signs, warning residents about the vandal, and announcing that residents have ordered dozens of new flags to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.

“It almost makes this laughable, that he’s riding a [scooter] around to tear down pride flags,” Colaur said. “I don’t know where he’s coming from, or why he has so much vitriol for the LGBTQ community, but he obviously has some bigoted views if he thinks that by stealing pride flags, we might be a little less gay.”

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