MERIDIAN, Idaho — A Meridian family says someone placed stickers on several of their cars that state they’ve parked illegally. Two of the stickers resembled city stickers, but it wasn’t from the city and one of the stickers contained profanity.
“It's just very unsettling,” said Melissa Medina.
Last month, Melissa Medina and her sister, Vanessa, were at home, when their dad went to move his car and saw a sticker plastered to his car window.
"It said, 'Warning, illegal parking. Your car will be towed,' in English and in Spanish, and he was really confused because it was parked behind our driveway," Melissa Medina said.
Moments later, they discovered a sticker on Melissa's car.
“In the middle of it, written in Sharpie, was 'no double parking' and we were really confused because that parking is completely open, neighborhood parking anyone can park there,” Melissa Medina said.
Fast forward a few weeks and it happened again. This time to Vanessa's car, but this sticker included some profanity.
“It's kind of scary because one of our cars was parked in front of our driveway, so if they were willing to like in the middle, come up to our driveway essentially and put stickers on our cars, then what else could they do?” Vanessa Medina said.
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The family reported what happened to the Meridian Police Department both times and filed a police report. Meridian Police patrol Lt. Brian Caldwell said it could be potentially classified as vandalism.
“It only could be considered a crime if there was some kind of damage to the vehicle itself,” Caldwell said. “So if the decal was put on a way that when it was removed it caused damage to the paint or something on the car, then it might rise to a criminal level.”
He added that it could also be considered disorderly conduct or a trespassing issue if someone went onto private property, but it would depend on the situation.
So, what should people do or what can they do if they ever experience something like this?
“If they feel that they're property has been damaged or someone has broken the law they should call us and let us make that determination,” Caldwell said.
In Melissa and Vanessa's case, they say they don't know who did this.
They told KTVB that the stickers damaged the tint on their dad's truck and scratched the window and windshield on Melissa’s car, and it cost them $200 to get the stickers properly removed.
“We've lived in Meridian almost all our lives and this has never happened to us before and it's so bizarre that we don’t feel safe in our own neighborhood,” Melissa Medina said.
If someone were caught in this case, Lt. Caldwell told KTVB that it would be deemed a misdemeanor, which would carry some level of fines and potential jail time. However, that would be highly unlikely in this specific case.
He added that this seems to be an isolated incident and, in the last year, they've had just two other reports of a similar incident. He recommended to the family update police about the damage that happened so that the police report can be updated.
The family said they've since installed a camera to keep an eye on their vehicles. They said they wish whoever is behind this would have just come talk to them first, instead of damaging their cars.
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