NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Residents of the Bellerose section of Queens woke up Friday to find messages of hate scrawled around their neighborhood.

Swastikas marked many cars, a fence, and a garage, CBS 2’s Tamara Leitner reported.

Carolyn Lyew said her blue Toyota was covered in swastikas near the corner of 87th Avenue and 256th Street.

“I’m just hoping it’s kids in the neighborhood who are not aware because anything else is unconscionable,” she said.

Lyew was not the only target.

“I was, what do you call it? Awakened by the police knocking on the door,” Bob Figueroa said.

On Friday morning authorities initially discovered 11 vandalized cars. Four of those cars were tagged with swastikas. By the end of the day the count had reached 18.

The vandals hit four blocks and scribbled on cars with sliver spray paint. Swastikas were also found on a garage and a nearby fence, police said.

John Fitzgerald said he has lived in the racially diverse neighborhood for more than four decades and that he has never seen any type of hate crime.

“I think it’s just a bunch of idiot kids,” he said. “I can’t think of any other reason why somebody would do something like that around here.”

Crime scene techs and detectives were on the scene all day, police said.

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