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Veteran pleads for return of stolen flags

Surveillance cameras captured images of five thieves running away with two stolen flags from a south-side veteran.

Surveillance cameras on West Harding near Commercial captured the moment when five people grabbed a south San Antonio veteran's flags and ran off into the darkness early Monday.

“I’m a proud American and I like to have my freedom of speech,” said Larry La Rose, a Coast Guard disabled veteran and Distinguished Service Medal-winner.

La Rose said that, like many San Antonians who have served this country, flying the American flag outside his door is a point of personal pride.

“Like every veteran and military person that retires, always displays their American flag. And when it gets stolen, it hurts,” said La Rose, who noted that he was born inside the modest home he later bought from his parents and that he had two flags on the gate posts lining his front walk. “I displayed a Trump flag and an American flag outside my house and they stole them. And it doesn't hurt my feelings too much that they stole the Trump flag because everybody voices their opinion, but it did hurt my feelings when they stole my American flag.”

La Rose said that when he stepped into his garden on Monday morning to read the paper with his morning coffee, he immediately noticed something was amiss.

"I said 'Damn! They stole my flags? How could they?’" recalled La Rose, who says that the theft is an emotional blow. “I display that flag every day. No one has a right to take it because I served for that flag, the US Coast Guard, 33 years of dedicated service, and I'm proud of serving.”

Fortunately, the watchful eyes of a neighbor's security cameras never blinked.

La Rose was emotional watching the replay.

“I said, 'Man, how could someone be that low, to steal an American flag?'” said La Rose, who added that he recognized a few of the teens in the video. "They all live in the neighborhood."

La Rose said that he filed a police report but he knows investigators are busy.

"There hasn't been no follow up," said La Rose, who’s hoping the teens will relent and return his flags to him. "It hurts. So I wish y’all just return it.”

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