A Francestown resident restored a vandalized Peterborough town sign on Monday after noticing the damage that appeared over the weekend.
A face and “BLM!” had been spraypainted in white on the town sign at the Hancock town line on Route 202, Peterborough police Captain Ernest Belletete said. A passing motorist reported it at 7:15 a.m. on Saturday.
“I don’t find it OK,” Francestown resident Samantha Forcash said after she spent about an hour scrubbing the sign clean on Monday morning. “There’s a way to get your message [across] and a way not to,” she said, and she didn’t want to give whoever spray painted the town sign the gratification of seeing their work on display until someone else decided to take action.
Forcash saw the graffiti on Monday morning, as she was driving into Peterborough to drop her son off at school. The sign is a landmark she and her son regularly note, she said. His teacher informed her the graffiti had spurred emotional fights on the Peterborough community Facebook page, Forcash said, and that spurred her to take action. “Get off your keyboards and stop complaining about stuff and go do it,” she said.
The incident likely occurred between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, Belletete said, as the initial caller had not noticed the graffiti the day before. There were no suspects as of Monday and the incident remains under investigation, he said, and anyone with information or knowledge of the incident should contact the Peterborough Police Department.