Scout leader's car damaged in vandalism attack on Sheffield estate
Nick James, a volunteer with the 82nd Sheffield (Chapeltown) scouts group had just led a walk from Parson Cross to Chapeltown with local youths when his car was targeted.
He was just minutes away from returning to his car after the walk when its alarm started sounding and local residents found his damaged Ford Focus.
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Hide AdIts windows and lights had been smashed and the car tyres had been slashed.
Nick, who served in the army for five years and is now a reservist, said he was disappointed at the wanton vandalism.
“I am disappointed that it has happened but you can’t let it get to you. It’s happened and you just have to move on,” he said.
“Apparently it happened 10-15 minutes before I arrived back at the car. If I had walked a bit faster, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”
He said nothing was stolen from the car.
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Hide Ad“Whoever did this did not steal anything, it is as though they just did it for something to do,” he said.
He volunteers to help run a city scout group one day a week and parked his car on Holgate Crescent, off Deerlands Avenue, Parson Cross, to accompany a group of scouts on a walk to their base at Chapeltown.
Their route took them along an old disused railway line and a cycle track.
Nick said: “Over the last year we have had to run the scouts virtually using Zoom, so with restrictions gradually being lifted it was nice to get the scouts out again and we’d had a nice walk.
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Hide Ad“With where I’d parked my car, which I thought was a nice area, I would not have expected it to have been damaged the way it was.”
He said scouts is still popular in Sheffield, with a waiting list in place for the Chapeltown group.
Anyone with information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101.
To offer help to Nick to repair his car, contact his scout group on Twitter using @82ndScoutGroup.