Anger as vandals attack over 20 cars along street
A Bath woman was left fuming after 21 cars were vandalised in one night on her estate.
Debra Clark lives on Ballance Street and awoke to find tyres slashed, doors keyed and windscreen wipers “ripped off”.
She said: “My partner got up to go to work in the morning and he said ‘our car’s been keyed.’ It must have happened overnight.
“That was around 8am and he sent me a video of it. I was absolutely fuming, so I decided to walk up to where it happened.
“I saw loads of windscreen wipers had been pulled off other cars. Then I saw one with a flat tyre and I thought ‘oh he’s got a puncture,’ but when I looked closer I saw it had been slashed.
“There was ‘BAA’ scratched on a BMW, a circle drawn on a Beetle the list goes on. I counted at least 21 cars that had been done.”
Debra rang the police on 101 and said that they told her everyone would need to report their crime individually.
The tyres on her friend’s car had
been let down, so Debra knocked on his door and advised him to tell the police.
Then she alerted the rest of her neighbours to what had happened and told them to report it.
“That first day was crazy. The police were here all day and people were having to call the AA out because their tyres had been done.
“One woman thinks she saw a man crouching down beside a car with his phone light on, around midnight, but she can’t be sure.
“The whole side of our car was done so we’re going to have to put it through the insurance,” Debra said.
She added that she pays a monthly fee to Curo, for the upkeep of the estate, and thought that this included CCTV.
A Curo spokesman explained: “We have live CCTV at Ballance Street which was installed specifically to cover the bin stores to deter flytippers.
“This CCTV does not reach the areas where these cars were damaged, however, new CCTV cameras are in place elsewhere and in the process of being commissioned.”
He added that Curo was “aware of this incident” and “helping the police with their inquiries”.
“We ask that anyone with information about this crime contacts the police directly,” he said.
Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that they were investigating the crime spree and had made house-to-house inquiries.
They said: “We received a number of reports of vehicles being damaged in the Ballance Street and Morford Street areas of Bath overnight on September 1-2.
“CCTV inquiries and house-tohouse inquiries have been carried out.
“Anyone with information that could assist our investigation should call 101 and give reference number 5221202788.”