Town rallies to help out victim of homophobic vandalism
A student in Virginia who had his car vandalised four times this year with homophobic slurs has had his car restored and fitted with new features when auto-repair shops throughout the town rallied to his aid in a display of solidarity.
Jordan Addison, a student at Radford University in Roanoke, Virginia said: “The first time it happened, there were some homophobic slurs keyed into the side of it. Then the second time I had ‘die’ keyed into it.”
Mr Addison said he tried to everything to cover his damaged Volkswagen but nothing worked and he couldn’t afford professional repairs.
“The lowest estimate I got just to fix the damage to the doors was $2,500, and for a college student, that’s a lot of money.”
Richard Henegar, Jr., the manager of a local auto-repair garage heard what happened to Mr Addison and offered to sort his vehicle out for him, free of charge.
Mr Henegar Jr said: “Once I saw the vandalism, I said that it was uncalled for and that we were gonna fix his car – it’s the least we could do.”
Mr Henegar estimates they spent 100 hours on the car over the past fortnight, reported Elizabeth Harrington for WDBJ.
By the time Mr Addison got his car back, it had new tires, a new paint job, tinted windows, a new security system, and new stereo. The total cost was well over $10,000.
The student was said to be “speechless” when presented with it. He said; “It hasn’t looked that great the entire time I’ve had it.”
Mr Henegar said 10 other businesses in the town helped out: “We couldn’t afford to do this all by ourselves.
“We had all the good intentions in the world, but I can’t finance something like this alone.”
