Dunedin pensioners feel 'unsafe' after cars smashed by partying youths

Brook St resident Cheryl Brook and her neighbours are devastated by acts of vandalism outside their pensioner flats at the weekend. Photo / ODT

A group of pensioners living in Dunedin's student area no longer feel safe in their homes after a group of youths smashed their car windows.

Cheryl Brook, 70, said she was woken late on Saturday night by males yelling outside her flat in Brook St, then heard several loud bangs.

She was too frightened to go outside to see what was going on, but yesterday morning she ventured out and discovered her car and two others had been damaged.

She said it appeared the perpetrators had scavenged through her neighbour's wheelie bins, looking for something to throw at the cars, before settling on a terracotta pot plant sitting on a doorstep.

It was thrown through the back window of the first car, retrieved and then thrown through the back window of a second car, retrieved again and then thrown at the windscreen of a third car.

"I didn't realise how sturdy a pot plant could be," she said.

She believed the culprits were students.

"I know this is a student area, but they should have at least a little bit of respect for us.

"I'm terribly disappointed that pensioners can be picked on like this.

"It's the stupidity of the whole thing. Students are supposed to be our new lawyers and doctors and future prime minister, and this is what they do to us."

She said she had no vehicle insurance and was angry that a brake light she had recently replaced had also been smashed in the incident.

Another pensioner in the block of flats, who declined to be named, said she was "gutted and frightened" by the incident.

"A lot of us are elderly and disabled here — it's awful.

"We heard the noises last night and us females are not going to come out here and do anything when we're on our own," she said.

"Knowing they've been into my back door, it's like we've been violated.

"I wouldn't be able to fight to defend myself because of my arthritis — Cheryl's got a bad back — we feel unsafe now."

Some students living in the area were also upset by the incident. One said it was "a horrible thing to do" and it made all students look bad.

Campus Watch officers attended the scene and police conducted forensic analysis of the vehicles yesterday. The investigation is continuing.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz