Man spray paints racial slurs on 2 vehicles, leaves nails under tires in NSB, police say

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — New Smyrna Beach police charged a Volusia County man with a hate crime after they say he painted racist graffiti on two cars in the Venitian Bay neighborhood in July.

According to a police report the victim was leaving for work when a neighbor told him someone had painted racist graffiti on his pickup and left nails under his tires.

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A woman whose car was also vandalized told police she had received several threatening messages on Facebook days earlier but didn’t recognize the person who sent them.

Police arrested 33-year-old Kyle Christiansen at a home in Daytona Beach Friday.

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During the investigation detectives were able to identify a car belonging to a relative of Chistiansen from surveillance video.

According to a police report detectives were able to then connect the Facebook messages to a fake account started by Christiansen after getting a search warrant.

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Detectives believe Christiansen may have targeted the family over some issues he had with the Philippine government.

Christiansen was booked into the Volusia County jail on a $10,000 bond.

WFTV