Vandal’s ‘senseless’ rampage leaves Garbutt car hire business devastated
A Townsville car hire business has been left to pick up the pieces after a lone intruder armed with a copper pipe went on a rampage in their car yard, smashing up 31 vehicles. See the photos.
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A Townsville car hire business has been left to pick up the pieces after a lone intruder armed with a copper pipe went on a rampage in their car yard, smashing up 31 vehicles.
The Independent Network Car and Truck Rental on Ingham Road, Garbutt was broken into during the early hours of Sunday morning.
Devastated staffer Deb Thompson said they arrived back at work on Tuesday after the long weekend to find almost all of the vehicles in their car yard had been trashed, racking up thousands of dollars in damages.
“We have 36 cars in the yard at the moment and 31 of them were damaged by this man,” she said.
“It was a blatant attack. He didn’t even steal anything he just smashed up the cars, pulled out the wiring inside, and made a huge mess. It was completely senseless.”
The incident has dealt a significant blow to the small business, which operates with a limited staff.
Ms Thompson said company has been forced to cancel some of their bookings this week while the damaged vehicles undergo repairs.
“This is one of our busiest times of the year with all the events on like the Supercars — it’s a massive set back for us,” she explained.
Ms Thompson also expressed surprise that no one had reported the incident sooner, despite several car alarms going off simultaneously.
“I saw the CCTV footage, and he hid his face pretty well under his cap,” she said.
“He had a copper pipe and was just causing as much damage as he could. He even cut his arm trying to get into the cars. We had to clean up the blood, along with the glass and everything else.”
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