A vandal spray painted three mysterious words — “Scata,” “Lash” and “Meeppa” — in gold graffiti on the window of embattled New York Congressman George Santos’ Queens district office on Thursday night, according to cops.
Workers for the Republican representative found the words when they opened his office on Northern Blvd. near Douglaston Parkway in Douglaston at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, NYPD said.
It’s unclear what the graffiti meant, and it had been scrubbed off the window by Friday afternoon.
Cops believe at least one of the words was misspelled.
Staffers working at Santos’ office — which still has the name of his predecessor, retired Rep. Tom Suozzi, on the front window — refused to speak with a Daily News reporter Friday morning and referred comment to his spokeswoman on Capitol Hill. She provided a written statement from Santos in which he said his staff filed a report with the NYPD.
“This act of cowardly behavior is beyond unacceptable and compromises the safety of my staff as well as my constituents,” Santos’ statement said. “My staff should never have to worry about entering the workplace, nor constituents who require federal assistance.”
A woman working at a pizza parlor next door told The News there was still spray paint on the window Friday morning. She declined to give her name, but said she had been told the graffiti spelled out “s–t” in three different languages.
The vandalism took place sometime after 5 p.m. Thursday when the office was closed for the evening, police said.
Cops were scouring the area for surveillance video that may have caught the act.
Santos, whose district covers parts of Long Island and Queens, has become a headache for House Republicans and a national punchline after he was exposed for fabricating details about his personal and professional life, including falsely claiming on the campaign trail last year that he worked for big investment banks, went to Baruch College and NYU, and had Jewish relatives who fled the Holocaust.
He is also facing potentially weightier questions about his finances, which are far more likely to lead to criminal exposure as he remains under investigation by state, federal and congressional probers.
Despite repeated calls for him to step down for his repeated fibs, he has refused, though he did voluntarily agree this week to not serve on any House committees for the time being.
On Tuesday, the self-styled conservative gay son of Brazilian immigrants promised a right-wing news outlet that he would tell the truth from now on.
“I’ve learned my lesson,” Santos said in an interview with One America News late Tuesday. “I can guarantee you that from now on anything, everything is always going to be aboveboard.”
