US flags stolen from 9/11 memorial in California neighborhood. ‘A cowardly act’

Someone snatched U.S. flags from a 9/11 memorial in a California neighborhood in the dead of night, and residents are angry.

“They had to steal the flag in the middle of the night like a coward, and that bothered me and my community,” Bob Ilko, Scripps Ranch Civic Association president in San Diego, told KGTV.

The culprit(s) stole five American flags and one U.S. Marine Corps flag posted along a road in the community sometime Saturday night, a Facebook post by the association said. The display also honored troops killed in a bomb blast at the Kabul airport in August.

“Apparently, the lessons of 9/11 were not learned as to how we should unite for the common good,” the post reads, calling the thefts “a cowardly act.”

The association plans to replace the flags and possibly install surveillance cameras, KGTV reported.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks where 19 militants hijacked four commercial airliners killing nearly 3,000 people, according to History.com. The solemn anniversary prompted remembrance displays across the country.

The 9/11 display in San Diego was one of several targeted by thieves and vandals. A surveillance camera recorded the person who vandalized a 9/11 memorial in Greenville, South Carolina, McClatchy News reported.

Likewise, a display of 13 U.S. flags and a U.S. Marine Corps flag honoring troops slain in the Aug. 26 bomb blast in Afghanistan was vandalized earlier this month in Riverside, near Los Angeles, McClatchy News reported.

Several of the flags were found shredded and torn hanging from an overpass, police said.

This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 11:22 AM.