Published: Thursday, 5th October, 2006 10:42
Living in fear
By Rachel Lamb
Print Article
POLICE are investigating a series of incidents which have left residents of a quiet village living in fear.
Residents in one area of Garelochhead have been terrorised by young thugs committing a catalogue of anti-social behaviour, which a resident claims has made him afraid to venture out at night.
Officers are probing a range of incidents and were called out to the village’s Hepburn Road, FOUR times in just two hours in the early hours of Friday morning.
The incidents included:
- A caravan being set alight
- Windows being smashed
- Reports of underage drinking
Police were called back to the area 48 hours later when a home on a neighbouring street was petrol-bombed.
Just after midnight on Friday morning police investigated reports of underage drinking in a caravan.
They were back at 1am, after reports that five males had pushed a wheelie bin down a grass verge and into a neighbouring garden.
Within minutes, they received reports that a bathroom window had been smashed.
And at 1.30am, they got a fourth call after the caravan they investigated barely one hour earlier was set alight.
Just two days later, a property on neighbouring Upland Road was targeted by someone using what police believe to be a petrol bomb.
Homeowners in the area say their lives have been made a misery by drunken teenagers.
One Advertiser reader told how the youngsters regularly meet at a caravan at the side of the road to guzzle booze before going on alcohol-fuelled rampages.
The man, who was too scared to be named, said: “Gangs of 14 and 15-year-olds congregate at the caravans at midnight and get absolutely wasted. Then they all spill out and go on the rampage.
“A neighbour got jumped last week. He had to be taken to the hospital and was in quite a bad way. I don’t dare take my dogs out late at night because of what’s happening. I don’t want to be the next one to end up in hospital.
“This has been going on for about two months now . People should be able to live in their own houses without fear.”
In the early hours of Sunday morning, police and firefighters were called out to a house on neighbouring Upland Road by a homeowner who reported a strong smell of petrol. Officers are treating the incident as wilful fire raising.
A police spokesman described it as a “particularly nasty and dangerous” crime.
He added: “The back door of the property suffered severe fire damage. It is not clear whether this was caused by a Molotov cocktail or whether someone threw petrol over the door and set it alight.
“We do not know of any motive and are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.”
Officers do not yet know if the incidents are related.
A spokeswoman for Argyll and Bute council said the owner of the caravan had been told to shift it and any debris from the Hepburn Road.
She said: “We believe the owner of the caravan has moved on. There are a number of other caravans in the area and the housing department is pursuing the owners to move them.”
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