Police hunt condiment car attackers

Flour, brown sauce, mayonnaise and jars of pickled onions have been thrown at cars in more than 50 cases across Oxford. Vandals have been smashing windscreens and denting cars with the condiments in East Oxford, Cowley and Headington since October. Drivers have been counting the cost of the vandalism, which police said has been carried out at random. Paul Rogers from Headington Quarry had a 1.25kg bag of flour dent his car. He said: “I heard a thud in the evening but thought nothing of it.

“When I walked around the back of the car in the morning I saw the bag of flour and a massive dent in my boot. I was lucky because the flour didn’t break the rear windscreen. But it’s cost nearly £1,200 to replace the boot and get a hire car for three days.” The 62-year-old added: “I’m a service engineer so my car is my office. I do over 1,000 miles a week and have all my tools in the back. Without my car I wouldn’t be able to do my job.” Councillor Roz Smith, wife of Mr Rogers, said that she was shocked by the incident. “It’s no laughing matter. It is just completely mindless, these people aren’t stealing anything, they’re just causing mindless damage.



“The neighbourhood police have been patrolling the area, but communities also need to be vigilant.” Helen Dancer of Headington Quarry, also had her vehicle targeted by vandals. She said: “We were brown-sauced. They threw a brown sauce bottle at the back of our car. It’s really upsetting because we’ve had to pay £300 excess and we’ve lost our no claims bonus on our car insurance. We have started parking our cars back-to-back in case they come back. I just hope they’ve finished with our street and moved on somewhere else.” Detective Sergeant Mark Hill, of Oxford CID, said: “We are investigating these crimes as a series.

“I am not going to disclose details of our investigation, but we are working with the neighbourhood team and looking at forensics. There isn’t a main area that has been targeted. It is sporadic around Oxford, but more events have occurred in Headington. Officers are looking at the possibility that the offenders were driving in a car during the attacks. In both the Headington Quarry cases Asda own-brand products were used, but Oxford CID said that vandals had used a wide range of branded products. DS Hill added: “Some may think the crimes are petty, but we are looking for witnesses and we need people who have seen anything to come forward.”