Homeowner: Those who painted racial slurs need 'prayer'

Authorities said the incident happened late Saturday, prompting the homeowner, Veronica Brown, and her four children to stay with relatives for a couple of days.

“I was so mad. I mean, I cried. I was mad, but I know, like my mother told me, people like this you pray for,” Brown said.

Brown said she believes the vandals are teenage girls targeting her 13-year-old daughter.

"It's very sad, very, very sad for people to do this. Children, where they learned it from, I do not know," she added.

"They're not taking a strike at one family. They're taking a strike at a whole community," said Dorothy Smith, who lives next door to the Trouble Road home that had been vandalized.

Neighbor Terry Williams said he couldn't believe when he drove by and saw the n-word and slurs like "monkey" scratched out on Brown's home.

"I didn't think anything like that was going on around here," Williams said. "(When) something like that happens, I mean, that affects the whole neighborhood, and it really bothered me. I didn't think it was like that. I thought it was over with. We don't do that anymore."

“I was so scared at one time, I was thinking about moving. I was thinking about selling my house, and I’ve only been here since September,” Brown said.

Wake County Sheriff's Office investigators and neighbors said they suspect the vandals are teens, possibly from outside the subdivision. Other nearby homes under construction were previously vandalized, but none had racial slurs written on them, authorities said.

Smith called the neighborhood, which is predominantly African-American, respectful and friendly.

"I don't know why it would be happening," she said. "This is very childish."