Utah County Teen Says Vandalized Car Latest Incident In History Of Bullying
Feb 9, 2020, 10:15 PM | Updated: 10:30 pm
AMERICAN FORK, Utah – A Utah County teen said a recent case of vandalism wasn’t an isolated incident and that she’s been harassed dozens of times, but police can’t do much about it.
The alleged victim, 17-year-old Brittnee Cook, works at a bowling alley in American Fork. While she was at work Saturday night, she said someone vandalized her car with foul language.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t surprised by the vandalism and claimed she’s been bullied and harassed for almost two years.
“I just really hope there’s a stop put to this so I can feel comfortable going back to school,” said Cook, who now takes most of her high school classes online.
Cook said her car has been hit with eggs, smeared in peanut butter and had oranges shoved in the exhaust pipe.
Her mother, Melissa Cook, said vandalism to this extent is new, but the bullying is not.
“This is really the worst that I’ve seen but it doesn’t surprise me,” she said.
She said her daughter has been scared, harassed and even received death threats.
“It’s affecting her life and our family,” Cook said. “It’s hard to see your child go through something so emotional and it breaks my heart for her.”
Brittnee Cook thinks she knows who’s harassing her but police and officials told her they can’t do much about it because there’s no proof.
Family members hoped they could get the people who are doing this to stop by making the incident public.
“The more it escalates the more nervous I really get,” Cook said. “I hope it stops. I hope people realize that this isn’t something to mess around with.”
Cook and her family said they’ve filed multiple police reports with both the American Fork and Pleasant Grove police departments. A detective has been assigned to the case and anyone with information is asked to call them.