Since 17 years old, Angel Pittman, now, has been saving money and hoping to become an entrepreneur. The North Carolina resident set aside $14,000 for three school buses to be used as a mobile hair salon. In September 2022, she also purchased a plot of land in Salisbury for $10,000 to have a base. However, racism stopped her plan before it could begin.

“I’ve never seen anybody driving around doing people’s hair. But not only did I want to get paid for doing hair, but I wanted to drive around, do a couple of homeless people’s hair and maybe go to some prisons and help incarcerated people,” Pittman said in an interview with The Guardian published on Tuesday (March 21). She noted that after closing on the land, she got a weird feeling about an elderly white male neighbor near the Salisbury property, a small city in Rowan county, North Carolina, but happy with her new endeavor, she brushed it off.

Later that month, she returned to the land with her mother to park the buses, and the older white man was outside once again. “Why are you guys here? Are y’all looking for shade?” he asked. His actions grew increasingly hostile. On another visit, Pittman said, “He sat over there and had his gun out the whole time.” The young woman added, “He was like, ‘Get the f**k off my lawn.’ And [that] we need to get them f**king buses off his lawn. So basically saying my land was his.” His verbal threats became the least of her worries. The North Carolina hairstylist noticed the buses she worked hard to save for had been completely vandalized.

The 21-year-old claimed that not only were glass windows smashed, but racial slurs were written on the vehicles. Her neighbor also posted Confederate flags, swastikas and KKK signs on his property that Pittman insisted were not present when she purchased the plot or on any other visits. Pittman contacted the Rowan county sheriff’s office, but said the deputies were less than helpful. She filed a report, but no actions have been taken. Feeling her peace and life were far more valuable, the young woman moved back home to Charlotte.

“To have all of that ripped from under me was really hurtful,” she said. “I cried for a long time. For somebody to be hateful because of my skin color makes it even worse. It’s really heartbreaking,” Pittman told the publication. The Guardian also spoke with Mark McDaniel, one of the Salisbury, North Carolina sheriff’s captains, who said the elderly resident has always decorated his lawn with white supremacy signs. “It wasn’t like he put it there overnight. It’s nothing like that. So those items were not just put there after the buses were put there,” the law enforcement official stated.