Valley Woman Smashes Neighbor's Car With Hammer

CHATSWORTH, CA — A Chatsworth woman is the focus of a social media storm after taking a hammer to her neighbor's car.

Marylee Leong was filmed Wednesday taking a hammer to her neighbor's Honda Civic in a video filmed by the owner's sister's roommate. As the video begins, Leong is seen whacking a car that already has several dents in it. The person recording the incident tells Leong that she is filming her damaging her car.

Leong walks toward the camera, holding a hammer in each hand, and shouts, "Get the f--- out of this neighborhood! F------ s---!" She then walks away and tells the person recording the video to call the police, which the recorder assures Leong she is already doing.

An undisclosed amount of time later, Leong appears to leave her house in 10400 block of Glade Avenue to knock over her neighbor's recycling bin, while shouting, "Go back to Mexico!"

Soon after, another neighbor has Leong in what appears to be a headlock and is shouting profanities at her. "Tell me to go the f--- back somewhere, b----!" the neighbor shouts as Leong sprays a hose at her. The neighbor eventually pushes Leong into a bush, and the hose continues to spray water directly at the neighbor.

Vehicle owner Edy Perez tweeted about the event Friday, writing that while he was away in Miami, a woman damaged his car "all cuz she racist and dont like us."

On a post to a Chatsworth Facebook group, Perez wrote that Leong has been telling him to get out of the neighborhood and hurling racial epithets at him since he moved next door to her in January 2019. He said that he ignored her: "We are good-hearted people: where even though people say racial things we don't retaliate we carry on with our day."

Perez has started a GoFundMe page to pay for repairs, noting that he does not have full insurance coverage and will need to replace every door on the car. Even though Perez said on Twitter that he did not expect to reach the page's $10,000 goal, the campaign surpassed that amount in just a day. As of Monday afternoon, 675 donors gave a total of $12,206.

According to the LAPD, Leong was arrested Wednesday night for felony vandalism, but was released after signing an agreement to appear at North Valley Superior Court on Oct. 20.

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