The minute hand had just swung past 07:15 on a cold Wednesday morning when my younger sister, my mother and I heard a knock on the door.
Standing there was our fellow Seely Road resident, who lives two doors down to our right. He immediately asked us the ominous question of whether we had seen what had happened to our car. My younger sister, Sidrah Uddin, recalls that ‘a blinding panic seized me, as a million scenarios played out in my head.’ Venturing out into that crisp November morning, we were taken aback by the sight of the entire back window smashed apart, with shards of black glass shining on the tarmac. Two other cars on the road found themselves in a similar predicament, one of which was that of the neighbour who had alerted us of this crime.
Naturally, the police were immediately called to investigate this triple crime, which seemed highly likely to have been perpetrated by the same criminal. However, no police officer arrived at the scene and instead, a crime reference number was given over the phone. Our neighbour, therefore, took it upon himself to make further inquiries about what had happened. After much questioning of other neighbours in the near vicinity, here is the most well-supported narrative:
According to one eyewitness, who lives opposite us, a man pulled a To-Let sign off the gate of a house on the corner of the street, before using the end of the pole to smash in the back windows of both our car and my neighbour’s. Our immediate next-door neighbour claims to have heard smashing on that same night. Both witnesses agree on the timing of the crime: just after two o’clock in the morning. The criminal seems to have been forced to flee when there was increasing movement in the houses surrounding him due to the sounds of smashing. It is believed that the criminal had already damaged a car further down the road prior to reaching our car since a third car was discovered to have the same damage done to it. Who committed the crime and why still remains unknown.
A night of three-fold criminal damage admittedly shocked those affected since Seely Road, a residential area close to a primary school (Links Primary School), is perceived by many to be a peaceful, quiet and undisturbed area. While our neighbour initially felt convinced that the attack was racially motivated, since the three cars damaged belonged to families of colour, it is equally possible that the offender was under the influence of a substance. Since we don’t know who the perpetrator is, this is all speculative. But one firm fact is clear: the people on this road are keen for this to never happen again.
