FLORENCE, Ky. - A lesbian couple says they're being terrorized in their own home.
Helen Cunningham says she had a gun pointed at her when she opened her front door Thursday night. She later realized it was a toy, but that didn't lessen the shock.
Minutes later, one of their front windows was smashed.
"Glass flew across our room," Cunningham said.
The aggressor is a neighborhood teen, she said. She and her partner have been targeted for months. She's not sure if it's because they're gay. They just want to be left alone.
"We didn't do anything. We have lived our life. We've never done anything to anybody," Cunningham said.
She said she has lived in the neighborhood for the past 25 years and never had any problems with her neighbors until recently.
And she says she's not the only one in the neighborhood being harassed.
"Last night I faced my own terror and I didn't think it was possible," Cunningham said.
When and her partner, Sandy, came home late, they were harassed by a neighborhood teen about their sexual orientation, Cunningham said. Shortly after they went inside, she heard a banging on the door and went to check on it.
"I opened the door and he's standing there with a gun pointed right at me pulling the trigger," she said.
First, she felt fear. Then, something that troubled her even more.
"I'm so ashamed at the hatred I felt for that kid when he put that gun in front of me," she said.
Cunningham said she quickly called police, but then she heard a loud explosion of something smashing her front window.
"Whether he hit it with a firecracker, he hit with a stick, it doesn't matter. All I know is that glass flew across our room," she said.
Now other teens have gotten involved and they're harassing Cunningham's neighbors.
"It's so repetitive that it's starting to get old. They're bringing other kids into it," said Misty Jones, who lives next door.
Cunningham hopes something is done soon to bring peace back to the neighborhood. She says she has been working with Florence police.
"Enough is enough. We've got to stop this," she said.
