Yahoo News Surrey village plagued by catapulting 'epidemic' as funeral becomes latest target
A catapulting 'epidemic' has plagued a quiet Surrey village - with a funeral becoming the latest target.
The peaceful village of Godstone, Surrey, has seen windows of homes and several animals have been maimed with swans and waterfowl being found dead. A local swan sanctuary worker recalls seeing “eyes exploded, throats cut, skulls fractured, wings damaged and broken legs” due to attacks, they told LBC.
And any culprits are yet to be tracked down - as police say they tend to strike at seemingly random times of day.
A vicar has reported damage purposely being perpetrated to St Nicholas Church, including windows being smashed and tiles being shot off the roof. Three cars, including his own had windows completely shot out.
Speaking with an LBC reporter, Peter O’Connell, the rector of St Nicolas Church said: “I was taking a funeral in this church, I came out afterwards and three cars including mine had windows shot out. Tiny holes, it looked like something that would have been fired by a catapult. Particularly for the mourners who were there to see off someone they loved to come out and experience so much damage to their cars was quite traumatic, and an expense to get it repaired.”
READ MORE:
He added: "We had someone fire something through one of the stained glass windows. It was the nativity window, they managed to take out the figure of Mary holding Jesus right at the middle of the picture”.
The onslaught of catapulting incidents has gone back months, with several reports of injured animals near Godstone Pond. A two-year-old child was nearly hit by a ball bearing fired through his bedroom window while he was sleeping back in July, 2018.
Back in December 2012, an elderly woman fell down the stairs, rushing to the scene after she heard the smash of one of her downstairs windows. The woman found two small holes in her double-glazed window.
And now, the residents of Godstone are demanding answers as the culprits are still on the run. A spokesperson for Surrey Police told LBC: “We have received reports of incidents of catapulting offences in the Godstone area. These have included reports of persons catapulting at birds and also catapulting at property and vehicles.”
“The local team is aware of these issues, and officers have increased patrols in the local area but there is no specific peak time or day identified for when these offences typically take place, which makes it harder to target these patrols most effectively.
“We know that catapulting offences are under-reported, and we would encourage people to always report these offences, as well as any reports of people carrying catapults and suspicious behaviour, as it all helps build up a picture of what is going on in the are.
“Following a report of suspicious activity involving persons carrying a catapult, the CCTV was obtained and circulated both internally and on our Facebook page appealing for information to help us identify ID the suspects involved. Unfortunately, we have not been unable to identify the individuals in these images so far – if we do, we will look at any interventions which could be put in place”.
Get more news from SurreyLive straight to your inbox for free here.
