On Nov. 1 at 8:23 a.m., Officer C. Caldwell was on routine patrol in the 5400 block of Hawthorne Road in La Plata when he observed a racial epithet written on a retaining wall near the entrance to the Hunters Brooke subdivision. The epithet was "Hunters Spook". Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Charles County Sheriff's Office at 301-743-2222.