TUNICA COUNTY, Miss. — Words of racial hate were written on — of all places — a gasoline pump.
A viewer noticed the offensive N-word and some threatening language Monday morning on a pump at a gas station in Tunica County not far from the casinos.
They sent us a picture, and we went to find if anyone saw who committed the atrocities.
The N-word, along with words like “hate,” “die” and “white pride,” were there for anyone who pulls up to the gas pump to plainly see.
A viewer emailed WREG pictures early Monday morning from the Exxon station at Old Highway 61 and Casino Center Drive.
Around 10:30 a.m., WREG went the Exxon station and found the hateful language still on the pump and a nearby support column.
It wasn’t until our camera was spotted that an employee named Melvin started cleaning the words off.
That’s when we found out this has happened before.
“I cleaned it already,” the employee said.
He said he cleaned it from “the same spot.”
It’s unknown how long the hateful language was on the gas pump before someone sent in the pictures.
Staion customer Kyle Thomas, from Red Banks, Mississippi, said he figured somebody surely must have seen the vandalism while it was in progress.
“You would think security cameras… I mean even the person working in there. I mean it took a little time to write that on there,” Thomas said.
We asked the Exxon store manager about security camera video and were told to contact Exxon’s home office.
We were also told to leave the property.
Thomas said he just hopes this sort of thing doesn’t become a common occurrence.
“I think it’s very offensive. I don’t know why people would write anything like that. It seems like people would have better things to do than write bad stuff like that,” he said.
We have not heard back from Exxon’s media relations department on the question of security camera video.
We’re also checking to see if the Tunica County Sheriff’s Department is investigating.
