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Barrington Family's Lawn Vandalized in ‘Hate Crime'

The Barrington parents discovered the vandalism about 6:30 a.m. on their front lawn.

Dozens of plastic forks standing up in the grass and a sign with a suicide prevention hotline number.

"It was a hate crime," Scott Nelles said. "It was vandalism. It was done intentionally. We didn’t realize forks in people's lawns was a thing. We legit thought it was some prank like TP."

At first they didn’t understand what the forks or the sign meant. Then it become very clear.

"Putting forks in someone’s lawn can mean I hate you, if you really hate somebody you say hey, lets go fork someone’s lawn," Nelles said. "In conjunction with the words on there and that’s the suicide hotline number, we quickly realized this is something far more hateful."

Nelles' daughter is an openly gay sophomore at Barrington High School. Recently, she’d been the victim of social media bullying because of her sexuality.

"She feels like there's a level of blame for her being gay and that was crushing to me," Sharon Nelles said.

The Nelles believe, thanks in part to saved evidence and doorbell surveillance that they gave to police, that her classmates are responsible despite the school’s compassion and anti-bullying position.

"This scared me," Sharon said. "I was scared for my daughters safety and I was shocked."

They’re speaking out for their daughter because someone without a strong support system, might take this message to heart.

"When I look in her eyes, I feel sadness from her," Sharon said. "I’m level-ten mad but she is just really worn out by it."

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