BY TARA O’SULLIVAN
Between the hours of noon and 8 p.m. Lori was tagged with spray paint on Sept. 9.
Lori is a pink police cruiser owned by the Southeast Georgia Chapter of Guardians of the Ribbon. Each vehicle is named after a different woman who has fought against breast cancer.
Lori was a woman who battled cancer. On a day she was unable to come to an event hosted by the Southeast Georgia Chapter, they brought a vehicle to her instead. A few days later, Lori passed and the organization named the pink car after her.
The pink car was parked at Oglethorpe Mall when the vandal wrote “snap!” and “VA Big Bootie.” This is the second time this particular car has been vandalized.
“These vehicles serve as rolling memorials for these women,” said Shane Shifflett, firefighter and president of the Southeast Georgia Chapter. The cars are covered in signatures of victims of breast cancer. “The saddest part is that we lose a lot of these signatures in the cleanup process. It’s just disrespectful.”
The motives are unknown, and the vandalism was met with surprise on campus. “There’s just no reason to vandalize something that benefits a good cause,” said Carlos Ossario, a first-year sequential arts major from the Grand Cayman Islands.
After reviewing security videotapes, the suspect has been identified as a white male wearing a baseball cap. Tapes from all entrances are being scanned to find a clearer identification and Shifflett remains hopeful that the culprit will be found.
