A man in Cold Spring, Minnesota, has been charged with stalking an interracial couple and crashing a stolen SUV into their home in an alleged racially motivated attack. Andrea and Phillipe Robinson’s security camera captured the vehicle driving onto their front porch and damaging the side of their home.
According to the police, the suspected stalker, Benton Beyer, stole the vehicle and ditched it in front of the house of the Robinsons after placing a large piece of granite on the accelerator. The police found a teddy bear in a noose hanging inside the car. The Robinsons said the man has been stalking and harassing them for some time now.
“I’m still in shock,” Andrea, who is White, told CBS. “I can’t believe this. Every day I just come out here and think it’s a bad dream.” Phillipe is currently worried about the safety of his family. “How do I supposed to feel safe?” he said. “My wife, my children don’t want to stay here, and I understand.”
Andrea already had a restraining order against Beyer at the time of the attack, according to CBS. Two months before the incident, the police responded to 18 calls about Beyer stalking the couple. “He’s ramped it up,” Phillipe, who is Black, said. “He went from busting out windows to shooting at cameras, to knowing our schedule well enough that he would follow my wife at grocery stores.”
The couple said things got worse after they posted a video about racism in their children’s school and put a Black Lives Matter sign in their yard, CBS reported. The Robinsons were worried that the police were not taking the situation very seriously. “We were left here with our neighbors with no police protection with a man that essentially tried to kill our family,” Andrea said.
Beyer was recently arrested after a neighbor turned him in. He was in court on Tuesday after being charged with auto theft, stalking and property damage, all of which are felony charges.
Meanwhile, Andrea and Phillipe have so far raised more than $15,000 via an online fund to repair damages to their home and take care of any legal fees.
