Nativity scenes outside church, home vandalized in Huntington Beach

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Police are searching for vandals who defaced a nativity scene at a church and home in Huntington Beach, spray-painting it with swastikas and other crude drawings.

Church officials discovered the graffiti at the St. Bonaventure Catholic Parish in the 16400 block of Springdale Street when they arrived on Sunday morning.

Police said vandals drew swastikas and phallic symbols and scrawled “Hail Hitler” on one of the nativity figures.

The decorations were in front of the priest’s house, which is next door to the house of worship. A nativity scene at another nearby home was also vandalized.

“Today is, I believe, the most hurtful and the most obnoxious,” Nancy Cesar, the business manager at St. Bonaventure Catholic Parish, said.

Cesar said that the scene, which is put together by the church’s Vietnamese parishioners, has been vandalized in the past.

No suspects have been identified.

The homeowner and parishioners cleaned up the graffiti, kept the lights on and vowed not to let the vandalism mar the holiday.

Police do not know whether the two incidents are related.

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-- Abby Sewell and KTLA News