San Leandro woman arrested after posting racist letters on several homes

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - A San Leandro woman has been arrested, accused of leaving racist letters at several homes.

Some of the victims woke up this morning to find these threatening letters right outside their front doors.

It appears most -- if not all of the victims -- are of Asian descent.

Video captured a woman leaving a message on a pole outside the home of a Filipino family in the Heron Bay neighborhood of San Leandro.

The note begins quoting the Constitution then goes on to say… "If you were born in another country, return, go back to your land immediately, fast, with urgency."

It then tells the homeowner to leave.

It ends with "One American, white, brave, that serves the nation or USA is going to live here.”

“It's actually kind of intimidating because my son came from the grocery when we first saw this note and he asks can somebody watch me take the groceries out of the trunk,” said one victim who only wanted to be called John. 

Police say similar notes were left at five homes Friday, directed at minorities as well as women and children. 

Thursday police investigated a similar incident, when a related note was found on the nearby Heron Bay trail information board, specifically directed toward Asians.  The note partially read, “no Asians allowed, leave immediately,” according to police.

One victim says he thinks the threatening letters are related to the pandemic, but no evidence has been released indicating that’s a factor.  

“Well, the first thing that came to my mind was it's directed to the COVID-19 stuff that's going on right now, because I found right away that it's directed toward the situation because... there's a lot of Asians in our neighborhood,“ said John.

Police say they’ve arrested a 52-year-old San Leandro woman for the crime, Nancy Arechiga, located near the neighborhood Friday, carrying a backpack with handwritten notes of the same nature.

“We're a little bit relieved to hear that there's been an arrest made so I hope that this is not a group and this is just one particular person doing this.”

A police lieutenant issued a statement saying, “San Leandro is a community of beautifully diverse people, who share a common desire to live in harmony and free from intimidation.”

The suspect was booked into the Alameda County jail in Dublin, but has been released because of the bail situation during the pandemic.

It’s unknown at this time if police are charging Arechiga with a hate crime.