Victor Herrada didn’t notice the hate speech scrawled across the front of his Sacramento jewelry store right away.

The owner of Prestigio Jewelers came to work in a hurry Thursday morning, and was in the midst of setting up his display case when the offending slur caught his eyes. Spray-painted in black ink across a promotional poster for Latin pop star Julieta Venegas’ April 27 appearance at Ace of Spades was a word that packs a lot of hurt into three little letters: “FAG.”

“It’s a cowardly, hateful act,” Herrada said.

It was especially upsetting, Herrada said, because his shop, tucked in a strip mall on Franklin Boulevard, benefits from good word of mouth within Sacramento’s LGBT community.

“We’re known for helping the gay community get married,” he said. “There’s no judgment here.”

Herrada said Sacramento police weren’t able to pull much from his in-store video surveillance system, but did catch a glimpse of the suspected perpetrator by accessing the outdoor security system of the Latin market next door. Herrada said police were able to see that the vandalism occurred around 2 a.m. that Thursday, April 10, and was the work of one individual.

But apparently that’s really all the video showed.

“They’re not going to catch him,” Herrada said. Police did record the incident as a hate crime, however, he noted.

Photo courtesy of Victor Herrada.