Veteran’s Family Nearly Evicted Over Displaying American Flag

Joel Semar and her mother Deine Semar, whose late husband had fought in WWII, had been told to take down the American flag they were displaying outside their apartment or face eviction.
Veteran’s Family Nearly Evicted Over Displaying American Flag
An American flag is displayed on a dead lawn in front of a home in Fremont, Calif., on July 18, 2014. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Jonathan Zhou
4/6/2016
Updated:
4/8/2016

Joel Semar and her mother Deine Semar, whose late husband had fought in WWII, had been told to take down the American flag they were displaying outside their apartment or face eviction. 

The Semar family lives in Lexington Square Apartments in Clovis, California, which is owned by the Winn Companies, based in Boston. 

“This makes me very angry, because this is America,” Joel Semar told KMPH

Deine Semar said that she tried to talk to the apartment manager about the issue, but was referred to contact the corporate headquarters instead, where she found a dead end in the form of a voice complaint line. 

“They won’t let you talk to anybody. You have to put your complaint on a voice mail complaint line and I called four times,” Deine Semar told KMPH. “I left the same message and I have not heard from them.”

KMPH reporter Erik Rosales got a hold of the story, and decided to call Winn Companies to ask them about the situation. Hours later Rosales received an email from a spokesperson. 

“Our staff personally put the flag back up this afternoon. This incident was the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding. We apologize,” reads the email. 

According to the Semar family, the apartment manager helped them put the flag back out himself. 

Jonathan Zhou is a tech reporter who has written about drones, artificial intelligence, and space exploration.
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