ALTUS - Bobby Laws and his fellow patriots of the Masonic Lodge at 1120 N. Hudson don't look lightly on the desecration of their flags, just two days before the national celebration of independence.

Laws, who is the assistant secretary at the lodge, said that on Sunday morning a woman driving by on Hudson Street noticed that the American flag and the POW-MIA flag flying some 30 feet above ground on a pole had been methodically cut and each of them spraypainted with a pentagram.

Apparently, whoever did the deed sometime between midnight and 10 a.m. had simply untied the lanyard rope, let the flags down, desecrated them and raised them again - the POW-MIA flag upside down and on top of the American flag.

No spray paint was discovered around the area, Laws said, adding that whoever is responsible for the vandalism was working in the glare of two 300-watt quartz bulbs that shine on the porch and the flags from dusk to dawn every day. “They had to be pretty brazen,” he said.

For now, until Masonic Lodge members can come up with a way to secure the flags by a lock-able cable, no flags will be flying at 1120 N. Hudson.

“We need to be a little more watchful for this kind of thing,” Laws said.