Yucaipa resident Roger Reed had just come back from a trip to Disneyland with his fiancee on Monday when they stumbled upon a note in the front yard of their freshly decorated home.
“We just kind of assumed that it was something that fell out of our Christmas bins from decorating earlier in the day, and then my fiancee reached down to pick it up,” Reed said. “When we read it, we were like, ‘What in the world?’”
The note read, “Santa, I want the head of a Nazi under my tree.”
Reed said he thought it might have been an isolated prank — his next-door neighbors didn’t receive any such messages — until his sister showed him a neighborhood Facebook page.
Reed, it turned out, was just one of what he said were about a dozen neighbors who received threatening Christmas cards and notes on their doorstep. The messages on the notes ranged from, “Merry Christmas and f— you Nazi,” to the ominous message, “8:46 December 3, you are warned.”
Residents of Reed’s Whisper Ranch neighborhood say the police were called, but it’s unclear if an investigation was launched. The Yucaipa Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
One neighbor shared a video on the Yucaipa neighborhood Facebook page of footage from his Ring camera. In the clip, two masked men can be seen running onto his doorstep to place the note.
In the Facebook group, some residents alleged that the use of “Nazi” could have been associated with the area’s Republican reputation, though notes were left in front of houses without politically affiliated flags or signage, like Reed’s.
“After getting the note, we felt uncomfortable, as if somebody were watching us and we went inside,” Reed said. “I think it’s really concerning and I just want to spread the word about it because I don’t think we should let threats slide.”
In the working-class neighborhood, the motivation for the threatening notes remains unknown.
“Our neighborhood is mostly police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, and so we’re so confused by it,” Reed said. “It’s so out of the ordinary, it’s a very quiet working neighborhood. Nothing like this has ever happened here.”
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