Palos Verdes Estates police, already the target of a national media glare over what some claim is their hands-off approach to surfing localism, are investigating a new act of vandalism fitting the historic profile of intimidation.

Just before 7 a.m. on July 31, a 56-year-old surfer called police to the 700 block of Paseo del Mar in Bluff Cove to report alleged harassment from a 66-year-old surfer who told him to get out of the water, said Sgt. Tony Gonzalez. The man said he feared retaliation on his car parked above the beach.

When officers arrived, the alleged heckler told police the caller actually was the aggressor and pointed to a group of fellow surfers to back his claims.

Officers took down the man’s information and returned to the blufftop to inspect the caller’s car, finding no damage, Gonzalez said.

But about an hour later, the victim called again to report that his flip-flops were stolen from the beach while he was surfing and his vehicle had been kicked with muddy footprints.

Officers returned to take a vandalism report from the Rancho Palos Verdes resident, but the other men had been gone for some time.

Police in the affluent seaside community say the investigation is ongoing.

Gonzalez, who was not among the responding officers, said he did not know if the suspect is a member of a group of territorial middle-age surfers known as the Bay Boys.

For decades, the men have harassed out-of-towners from surfing at Lunada Bay, which is about a mile south of where last week’s incident occurred. The Police Department has long been accused of turning a blind eye to their sometimes violent tactics.

In May, the Guardian newspaper published hidden camera footage of the Bay Boys threatening two journalists at Lunada Bay, saying, “If you come up here, you’re gonna get a lot of s–t,” and, “People will just f—ing duke it out, f—ing work your car and get in fights.”

Reporter Rory Carroll wrote that when he and photographer Noah Smith returned to their car, it was smeared with eggs and the word “kooks” was written on the windows in surfboard wax.

In a subsequent conversation at the local police station that also was secretly recorded, an officer told them the Bay Boys are “infamous around here. They’re pretty much grown men in little men’s mind-set. … It literally is like a game with kids on the school yard to them, and they don’t want you playing on their swing set.

“But you know, it is what it is. If you feel uncomfortable, you know, then don’t do it.”

Carroll told the Daily Breeze in May that the officer assured the men that if they were on the beach and felt threatened, police would respond immediately.

But he noted that a French surfer featured in his article told him he had a different experience with another officer, who warned him he faced harassment if he tried to surf.

The varying accounts, Carroll said, suggested “the police were giving mixed signals.”

He said the isolated topography of Lunada Bay enhances the problem.

“It was bullying and intimidation and, in that sort of micro-environment, it’s amplified. It’s not the same thing as someone saying that to you in public.”

After Carroll’s story was published, the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department condemned the incident at the beach captured on tape and pledged it would not tolerate localism.

Jeff Kepley, who became chief of police more than a year ago, said the unidentified female officer’s remarks do not reflect the department’s approach.

“We just want people to know that we take this stuff seriously,” he said. “My clearly established expectation of my staff is that they’re going to vigorously go out and investigate.”

Kepley has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, KPCC radio and other outlets since the video went viral. He said he has gotten calls from residents who are “embarrassed and upset” because they “don’t want this black eye on our beautiful community.”

“But I have gotten no calls from the Bay Boys,” Kepley said. “I hope they’re getting the message and that they’re running scared.”

Even though the officer was recorded saying the police “know all of them,” Kepley said he is not aware that any men recorded by the Guardian have been identified. He said the newspaper did not hand over the complete, unedited footage.

Last month, the Police Department posted a statement on the city website addressing the problem.

“The beaches, shoreline and surfing areas along the Palos Verdes Estates coastline are all open to the public. There are no private beaches,” the statement read. “If you or anyone with you experiences any form of harassment, intimidation, assault, vandalism, etc., you are strongly urged to contact the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department to immediately report the incident.”

The same information was printed on a two-sided handout — along with a graphic of a surfboard with the word “Welcome” — that officers have been giving to beachgoers. Additionally, an LED sign mounted in the back window of a stationed patrol car that usually displays messages targeted at speeders has been used to encourage public reporting of such incidents.

Kepley said the widespread media coverage has blown the issue out of proportion and that officers required to make daily patrol checks have witnessed no incidents since the release of the Guardian footage. That could be because surf doesn’t pick up until the winter.

“The amount of attention is not commensurate with the amount of incidents lately,” he said, though he acknowledged more likely go unreported.

“They may think we don’t care or we haven’t done anything. I’m new here and I’m trying to change that. I need people to report it.”

Undercover operations and more patrols by volunteer park rangers are planned for later this year.

Michael Sisson, an attorney who sued members of the Bay Boys, the Dirty Underwear Gang and the city of Palos Verdes Estates in the 1990s and early 2000s, said he is “not shocked at all” to hear of another incident.

“Every once in a while they’ll shine a flashlight on the cockroaches and it seems like they go somewhere else.”

Sisson tried to get a gang injunction banning the cliques from congregating in the area, “but it never really got anywhere with the court because there was a lack of cooperation with the city’s Police Department.”

Kepley said that while the Bay Boys do have a gang mentality, they are not a gang.

“They’re not shooting people, they’re not stabbing people,” he said.

Sisson suggested using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — or RICO Act — against them instead.

When it comes to the Police Department’s latest pledge, Sisson said he supposes “it’s good if they’re earnest and sincere, but history teaches me that they’ll put a Band-Aid on it until the issue goes away.”

The Palos Verdes Estates City Council has lost longtime members and gained new faces since it last addressed the issue.

Councilman James Vandever, one of three newcomers seated this year, said he believes the city is “trying to be very proactive in dealing with the localism issue.”

“I think this is probably not just a problem in our city, but the fact that it is a problem in our city means we have to address it.”