Vandals put police cars off the road

Vandals in Balfron this week trashed two police cars, leaving them out-of-action.

A Mitsubishi Outlander had a rear window smashed between 6pm on Monday and 7am on Tuesday morning.

All the windows on a Ford Focus were damaged between 11pm on Wednesday night and 1am on Thursday.

An Audi belonging to a member of the public was also vandalised, with the side and front windows smashed on Wednesday evening.

All three vehicles were parked outside Balfron Police Station on Buchanan Street when they were targeted.

Officers insist they are unsure why their vehicles have been targeted but are certain it is the work of someone out to deliberately cause disruption to the police.

The Mitsubishi Outlander is an offroad vehicle often used by officers responding to emergencies in less accessible areas of rural Stirlingshire.

The Ford Focus is a fully-equipped police response vehicle used to attend most emergencies in the area.

Both vehicles are used across the whole of West Stirlingshire.

Police believe the vandals targeted the Audi under the false impression that it was also a police car.

The station has drafted in replacement vehicles from across the division during repairs.

And Callander-based Inspector Gerry McMenemy insisedts that if the damage had not been spotted so soon things could have been a lot worse.

He said: “We believe these incidents are connected. This vandalism is completely reckless.

“It’s not just about the cost of repair, it’s because these are fully-equipped emergency response vehicles and they are now off the road.

“Some of the calls we use them for can be life-threatening incidents and this could have impacted upon our ability to respond.

“The people responsible could have deprived the people of West Stirlingshire of vital services. This is totally irresponsible and it can endanger people’s lives.”

He added: “If the damage hadn’t been spotted so soon we could have been in the situation were officers were rushing out to use the cars to respond to an emergency incident and only discovering then.”

Police asked anyone with information about the incidents to call them on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.