Detectives are investigating what appears to be a cross burned in a Fairfax County homeowner’s lawn as a possible hate crime, police said.

       Officers were called to investigate the burned patch in a backyard in the 3400 block of Clayborne Avenue in Groveton on Tuesday morning, police said. Detectives think it was set alight sometime in the past 15 days.

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       Police said they have no indication who burned the grass or what their motive was, but it was discovered by someone was hired to cut the lawn.

       The owner of the home where the incident occurred is Black. Police said they have not received reports of other suspicious incidents at the same address and have not received other reports of crosses burned in lawns in the area.