Seen white suits along Highway 12? They're not what you think they are, officials say
Have you seen bright, white suits on stakes haunting parts of Highway 12? More specifically in properties along Lodi’s vineyard corridors?
What could look like Ku Klux Klan robes are instead spray suits, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.
Property owners and field workers spraying pesticides are having a, “big issue with coyotes, so they’ve put them (suits) on stakes,” they scare the coyotes away, Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sandra Mendez said.
The Sheriff’s Office was made aware of the misinterpretations of the white spray suits hanging at the corner of Ray Road And Highway 12 (across from Michael David Winery). Officers visited the site and cleared the misunderstanding.
Fieldworkers took the suits down after being told what people were seeing in their makeshift scare-coyotes, “so they are going to be doing something about it,” and find a better way to scare the bushy-tailed animals off the property.
A community member’s photo earlier Wednesday morning showed the suits from an angle that could lead viewers to think it was a hood and white robe. “When we went out there, they had it in the same location (suit), but it looked nothing like the photo, we couldn’t replicate it,” Mendez said.
Record reporter Laura Diaz covers social justice and societal issues. She can be reached at ldiaz@recordnet.com or on Twitter @laurasdiaz_. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: White suits along Highway 12 are not KKK robes, SJ Sheriff explains
