Local police are looking for the vandals who smashed up a Pierce County tanning salon.

Video: Vandals hit Pierce County tanning salon, spray racist graffiti

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And it may have been a hate crime, because the criminals sprayed disturbing messages on the wall.

"We don't understand why somebody would come in here and destroy people's lives like this," said Trish Behnke, who runs the University Place tanning salon with her fiance.

The question that she keeps going back to is: Why?

"We don't understand why someone would hate us to that point," she said.

Some time Thursday night, vandals broke into the Strictly Tan Salon on Bridgeport Way West and wreaked havoc.

They smashed up half a dozen tanning beds, ripped out stereo systems.

They trashed the break room, and nearly demolished the bathroom.

KING

They trashed the break room, and nearly demolished the bathroom.

And that's not the worst of it. The vandals sprayed hateful graffiti throughout the back rooms, from a swastika to the N-word and other obscenities.

"It's devastating," said Behnke, who believes the vandals wrote the racist messages because as she's engaged to the salon owner, who is of mixed race.

"You think in 2008, people would have grown up and not think about stuff like that," she said.

While University Place Police investigate the possibility that this is the work of a disgruntled customer, Behnke and her fiance are still trying to make sense of it all, not only for themselves but for their children.

"I won't allow them (my kids) in here but for my fiance, they're devastated," she said.

Trish and her fiance say they are working with customers who bought tanning packages.

And while insurance will make re-opening the business possible, the victims say they will find a new location.