OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) — Authorities are investigating after a woman said she found a cross burning in her front yard and a racial slur written on her mobile home in western Kentucky.

Tawaka Harris told the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer (http://bit.ly/2dS3KnX) that she and her husband, who are black, discovered the roughly 2-foot cross burning early Thursday after hearing their dog barking.

“He never barks,” Harris said. “We came out, and a cross was burning in the front yard.” She said she stomped out the fire and called police.

The couple has been in an ongoing dispute with other Eastwood Mobile Home Park residents, Harris said. On Wednesday night, she said her husband chased and punched a man who kicked in their door. The suspect fled, and her husband saw the slur, with a threat, written on their home.

“They couldn’t even spell it right,” Harris said of the grammatically incorrect threat.

According to Sgt. Morgan Palmiter, a detective with the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office, deputies canvassed the neighborhood Thursday.

“We have made contact, trying to find potential witnesses, and we have done an interview with a potential suspect,” Palmiter said.

Sheriff Keith Cain said authorities will call the FBI because it is a possible hate crime and increase patrols in the area.

“We don’t have this here,” Palmiter said. “This is not something we see here or tolerate here.”

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Information from: Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, http://www.messenger-inquirer.com

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