Suspended Giants FB Whitlock: Burglars left swastika, 'KKK'

ByABC News
December 8, 2016, 3:11 AM

— -- Suspended? New York Giants fullback Nikita Whitlock?said burglars scrawled racist graffiti that included a swastika, the letters "KKK" and the phrase "Go back to Africa" when they broke into his New Jersey home on Tuesday night.

Whitlock told?WCBS-TV in New York on Wednesday that jewelry and video game systems were taken and that it was the second break-in he and his family have experienced at the apartment.

"It just re-establishes that no matter where you are, no matter who you are, this can happen to you," said Whitlock, who was suspended 10 games without pay in September for violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Whitlock, 25, told WCBS-TV that he and his wife and their two young children were out for a few hours when the burglary took place. Whitlock said the intruders gained access through a small window of their Bergen County residence.

"It's very disgusting, actually; it's very disheartening," Whitlock's wife, Ashley, said. "You hear about things that do happen, but you never think, 'Oh, this is going to happen to me.'"

A police investigation of the first break-in, which occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday, was ongoing, according to the WCBS-TV report.

"It's about to be 2017," Nikita Whitlock said. "Oppression, violence, racism, hatred, violence, there's no need for that."

Whitlock's 10-game ban was his second-such suspension and was for the same substance that cost him four games in 2014, according to an ESPN source. The second suspension will cost him $204,705 in salary.

Whitlock, a second-year player out of Wake Forest, was already on season-ending injured reserve with a foot injury.

Whitlock was the Giants' fullback and a key special-teams contributor last season. He also played some as a pass-rushing defensive tackle. Whitlock started five games, had a sack and finished with four special-teams tackles.

Information from ESPN's?Jordan Raanan was used in this report.