For more than three decades, a Maryland neighborhood has had the same name: Shady Grove Station. The name appears on a sign residents see as they turn into the development.
After that sign on resident Sibtain Kazmi's property was destroyed in a car crash, Kazmi replaced it -- and added his family's name. The words "Kazmi Colony" now appear in smaller letters below the neighborhood's name.
When Kazmi got home from work Monday night, he was upset to see that someone had covered "Kazmi Colony" with black spraypaint.
"It just hurt that anybody’s name can be butchered like that," he said Tuesday.
He said he changed the sign to honor his late father.
"I love my dad, just like every child love their father," he said. "He have done a lot. He brought us here, to this country, the land of opportunity."
Kazmi's family moved to the U.S. from Pakistan more than 30 years ago.
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Neighbors said they thought it was wrong for someone to vandalize the sign at Shady Grove Drive and Epsilon Drive in Shady Grove. But they still want it removed.
"It is not a personal sign. That is a community sign," resident Iris Venkatesan said.
"Somebody new to the neighborhood and denoting this community in memory of his father, who hasn’t lived here? That I don’t understand," resident Dan Coss said.
Montgomery County's zoning department said there's nothing they can do; the sign is not causing a hazard, and it's on Kazmi's property.
County police said they're investigating who vandalized it.
Kazmi apologized to his neighbors.
"I’m sorry if I offended anybody. That was not my intention at all," he said.
He said he would prefer not to take it down.
"If it really comes down to it, that oh my God, people are losing their sleep over this, I might take it down. Might," he said.
