Ingress Park, Greenhithe, residents desperate to catch phantom egg thrower
05:00, 03 March 2023
updated: 12:25, 03 March 2023
Egg attacks on cars are causing residents to fight back in a desperate bid to catch the culprits.
After three weeks of the midnight peltings, baffled neighbours in Ingress Park Avenue, Greenhithe, are furious about the criminal damage to their cars as well as the time and money spent cleaning them.
One woman is so annoyed she is thinking about doing a stake out in the hope of catching the culprits in the act.
Mrs Walker, who lives on Ingress Park Avenue, said: "It has now happened three weeks in a row and it's always around midnight.
"The first time it happened I thought maybe I had upset someone. It was splattered with eggs all up one side. But now I have realised it has been happening all over the estate for three weeks now.
"I initially thought it might be kids, then a parking vigilante, but now I just don't know. I might actually sit outside and watch next Friday night."
Mrs Walker said her convertible BMW was targeted two weeks in a row, as was her son's Swift - while he was in it.
"He had just got home from work and was still sitting in his car on the phone, parked right outside our house." she said. "It shocked him so he looked around. No cars. No one around. Silent. He thinks it must have been thrown from a distance by someone on foot from a side alley."
The attack on her son's car came exactly a week after her car was targeted. And she said that while it might be a bit of fun for whoever is doing it, it's not if it's your car constantly needing to be washed or repaired.
"Crime like this is weak and gutless," she said. "It's damaging to paintwork and inconvenient to keep paying for car washes. If the shell gets stuck when it is dried it chips the paint."
Residents with doorbell camera have been scanning their footage in the hope they can spor the culprits.
One saw a suspicious-looking man walking past her Ring doorbell.
She said: "A young man walks up Ingress Park Avenue at 11.38pm with what looks like a small paper bag in his hand and then comes back down, walking in the road at 12.39am, without the bag."
While she admits it may have been unconnected or completely innocent, she is planning to scour video footage at the same time on other Friday nights.
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said her car was egged on three separate occasions, even though she parked it in different places on the same road.
She said: "As you walk along on a Saturday morning you can spot lots of cars with egg on them along Ingress Park Avenue."
While another speculated on the culprits: "It has to be kids on foot walking down the alleys and launching from a distance. It's getting so bad around here with anti-social behaviour."
Cllr David Mote hoped to help residents get to the bottom of the sticky situation by encouraging them to report every incident.
"They might think nothing will get done but I have spoken to the local inspector and he is aware of the incidents. He has asked the Police Community Safety Officers to pay attention on Friday evenings.
"It is always important that residents report this to the police on 101 as it helps them to allocate the officers so they might be there the next time it happens.
"Whoever is doing this may think they are having a laugh, but it is anti-social behaviour and it can cause criminal damage."
One resident, who wanted to be known only as Sian, reported the attack on her orange Vauxhall Corsa to police, as it did cause damage.
"It has chipped my paint work and I will now have to get my car painted." she said.
She added: "This area is getting worse and some people don't have any respect for anyone or care who they hurt."
A spokesman for Kent Police said: "We have received a report of criminal damage where eggs were reported to have been thrown over a parked car in Ingress Park, Greenhithe, at around 11pm on February 17. No suspects were identified and no arrests made."
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