Woman rattled after man leaves racial slur on her windshield

DESTIN - Friday's trip to Walmart started out like most others for Katie Gilliam. She parked her car, grabbed her purse, locked her car doors and said hello to the employees she has come to know over the years.

“I’m at Walmart at least three to four times a week,” said the retired Santa Rosa Beach resident. “I was treating myself to a manicure and pedicure.”

Parked in a handicap spot near the oil and lube center, Gilliam returned to her Mercedes to find a white envelope “tucked” under her windshield wiper blade.

She turned the envelope over and was disgusted by what she read.

Someone had written “there are speed limits here” and referred to Gilliam with a racial slur. Shocked by what she had read, Gilliam got in her car, locked the doors and “got herself together” before dialing 911.

“I was scared,” she told The Log Tuesday. “I remember telling the dispatcher that ‘I was going to do whatever I had to do to protect myself.’ ”

An Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputy arrived on the scene, met with Gilliam and reviewed the security tapes along with a manager from Walmart. The video showed a white male in a white Ford Explorer pull up next to her vehicle and place something on the windshield.

When The Log contacted the Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, public information officer Michele Nicholson said the complaint was originally filed under criminal mischief, but since no damage had actually occurred to Gilliam’s vehicle, the incident would be treated “more like a harassment issue.”

“There are currently no leads, since the video footage from Wal-Mart didn’t provide a good shot of the person and they could not be identified,” she said.

Gilliam didn’t buy that answer.

“There was a State Farm policy number on the envelope,” she said. “They can start by calling them. I am not going to do the sheriff’s job for them; I am a taxpayer.”

After she was informed of the envelope of the identification number, Nicholson said there was no reason to contact the company and proceed because the “case was not criminal.”

“Because of the way the statues read, there is nothing for us to pursue,” she said, adding that Gilliam was free to pursue civil action against the perpetrator if she could identify him.

After she was told the police could no longer help her, Gilliam was frustrated, but said that she will continue to ask questions about what she calls “terrorism.”

“I am going to contact State Farm and see what I can find out,” she said.