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SWANSEA, S.C. (WACH) - Deputies are investigating a Thursday morning cross burning incident in Swansea.

When Dexter Julie walked out his front door that morning he found the unwelcome surprise.

The father of three says he was looking straight at the charred remains of a roughly four-foot tall cross that someone burned in his front yard.

"I've only heard stories about stuff like this from my mom and grandparents," said Julie. "I mean it's 2012. Who does stuff like this?"

Investigators want to know the very same thing. Julie's neighbor told deputies he saw two vehicles driving away from Julie's house early Thursday morning while he was leaving for work. The cross was burning at the time and the neighbor told investigators he saw a large truck racing away from the area, and the tail lights of another car a little further down the road.

Authorities confiscated the burned wood from the cross, a half-dozen beer cans, and an empty Wendy's hamburger box from the scene.

"At this point in time we have no motive," said Lexington County Sheriff James Metts . "We don't know if it was random or selected. We don't know if it was racially indicated or just a prank. We don't know."

Julie just moved to his home on Gray Fox Forest Lane back in December and says his wife is worried about the safety of their three children after the incident. Julie thinks some teenagers may have burned the cross as a prank, and says he heard people partying in the area late the night before everything happened.

Prank or not, he isn't about to be scared off.

"I'm going to stay here," said Julie. "I'm not going to let nobody pull a stunt like this and uproot me and my family."

Investigators think what happened in Julie's front yard is an isolated incident and have received no reports of trouble in the area that could be linked to the cross burning. At this point, they have no reason to think a hate group is responsible.

"I'm more of less worried about my children and my wife," said Julie. "It doesn't bother me. But, it's more or less I'm concerned about their safety."

Sheriff James Metts says he can't remember the last time something like this happened in Lexington County.

However, it did happen in Columbia last fall.

In late October, someone burned a cross outside the Gervais Street home of a man accused of posing a social worker so he could take advantage of vulnerable adults. Someone also threw a brick through the window with a racially charged note attached. The F.B.I. was called in to investigate that case.