21 FLAGS BURNED BY TWO VANDALS `URBAN TERRORISTS' HIT QUIET STREET.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

QUARTZ HILL - For more than eight years, residents of a quiet Quartz Hill street have proudly displayed their American flags, one on the lawn of nearly every home.

Thursday morning, however, Travis Paul Drive residents awoke to find their flagpoles all pulled from the ground or bent, and 21 star-spangled banners ripped off and burned in a trash can in front of the home of the man who hands out the flags.

``You wouldn't think it would happen to flags, especially now,'' said longtime resident Dana Porras. ``It's urban terrorism.''

Flown night and day since Sept. 11, the Travis Paul Drive flags have been handed out by neighbor Gary Kephart, who makes sure everybody has a flag and helps those who need it install the thin aluminum poles.

``Every time someone moves into the neighborhood, he gives them one and every time someone moves out of the neighborhood, he gives them a new one,'' Porras said.

The vandals were described as two men or teen-age boys wearing military-style camouflage pants.

Just before 3:30 a.m., the vandals went from house to house, cutting or burning the flags from the poles. The vandals put the 21 flags in a plastic trash barrel in front of a house and ignited them.

A resident saw the pair just after they lit the fire, but they fled when he approached, sheriff's deputies say.

Travis Paul Drive residents suspect the culprits come from nearby Quartz Hill Mobile Home Park, whom they have blamed in the past with causing trouble after jumping a wrought-iron fence and passing along the street to get to a minimart.

Parked cars have been vandalized, homes spray-painted and windows broken, residents said.

Instead of being disheartened by the incident, residents say a new row of flags will be up within the next week.

``We're not going to let them beat us,'' Porras said.

If caught, the vandals could face theft, destruction of private property and vandalism charges.