By Chloe Hewitt
Residents across Leicester have been waking up to find their car windows were smashed overnight, in a spate that has also targeted buses, businesses and homes.
Ball bearings fired from catapults have been used by the criminals in order to maliciously damage the vehicles, said police.
This vandalism has been taking place for a number of months now, with the police none the wiser as to who the culprits may be.
Bethanie Piper, 20, of Wilberforce Road, near the city centre, said: “A number of cars on my road were damaged, I just do not understand why they would want to do it.
“These people carry out such stupid and ignorant acts and the people whose car it is have to suffer for it.”
The headquarters of clothing retailer Next, in Enderby, had three of its large windows destroyed recently.
The victims of these attacks have not had any property taken from their vehicles nor would the windows that have been broken give the vandals access into the vehicles.
“It just seems like a sick little game,” Miss Piper added.
“They are just doing it for a laugh, I just cannot imagine how going out and purposefully damaging property can be fun.
“I hope they get caught soon and dutifully punished for the amount of inconvenience they have caused to so many people.”
As well as the cost of re[airs for the council and residents, the attacks have an emotional toll on residents.
The issue first came to light in June this year but it has since escalated after 19 calls were reported on one night.
On one occasion, 40 phone calls were made to the police about this issue.
Although they cannot be certain that all of these attacks are in fact linked, police said they are investigating to establish whether they are connected in some way.
