CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Cleveland police are investigating after a Sherwin Williams employee found a hateful symbol on the job site of the company’s new headquarters downtown.
“I was shocked that somebody would do that,” said a Sherman Williams construction worker who wanted to remain anonymous. “I’m old enough to know that there’s people like that out there, but for somebody to be that angry to want to do that to destroy property, to carve it into private or public property because it’s the way that you think, or feel is ridiculous.”
The man is just one of roughly 1,000 contractors working on the new Sherwin-Williams building. He was horrified when he discovered that someone etched a large swastika on the door of the new skyscraper’s 4th-floor elevator.
“They sent out a mass text to all the superintendents, everybody put their tools away and shut the whole job down for further investigation and called the police in,” the man explained. “The detectives came, took photos and the following day they had a safety stand to kind of inform everybody what was going on, reiterate their zero-tolerance policy of some this hate graffiti.”
Cleveland police say they got the call on Tuesday. Right now, they haven’t made any arrests but the person responsible could be charged with ethnic intimidation and vandalism.
The employee believes it had to have been done by another worker.
“There’s constantly Sherwin-Williams, corporate people, and Gilbane, safety coordinators walking around so it was pretty brazen and shocking,” he said.
It’s going to cost the company more than $5,000 to repair the elevator door.
“I think this is a good addition to the city, to the skyline and to Cleveland, and it’s a shame that something like that could cast a shadow of something good that’s happening in the city,” the employee told 19 News.
Gilbane Construction is the contractor for the project. He says he was impressed with the way Gilbane and Sherwin Williams handled the situation.
“I think it was good the way Gilbane and Sherwin-William, how serious they took it and how swift they acted and in notifying everyone that that type of display of hate is not tolerated,” the man said.
Contact Cleveland detectives if you have any information that could help identify the vandal.
19 News reached out to Sherwin Williams for a statement, but so far, we have not heard back.
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