A usually quiet suburban street in Aberdeen has been targeted by vandals; just weeks after two robberies took place in the same area.
Retired councillor Jill Wisely and her husband Ivan were woken in the middle of the night by “large thumps” and later realised they had been “paint bombed”.
The noise woke the couple in the early hours of Thursday morning and Mrs Wisely went to the front door to find that her car was “completely covered in paint”, she said: “I phoned the police straight away – it was just after 2am. Our front porch was also covered, but at this point I hadn’t seen the roof – it was only later when I went further out to start cleaning it up that I looked up and saw the mess up there too. It’s quite shocking.”
The paving stones and a garden bench at the front of the property were damaged by paint and glass shards could be seen on the ground along with two bottle caps.
Mrs Wisely thinks that the paint could have been thrown in home-made “paint bombs”, she added: “On investigation, we think it could have been used light-bulbs filled with paint – that’s what could have been thrown at the house.
“I have no idea why anyone would target us in this way.”
The former councillor, who used to represent the Airyhall, Broomhill and Garthdee ward, stood down in 2012 after nearly 30 years in local politics.
Her husband Ivan is a retired GP who ran a practice in Dyce for around 30 years and is a former secretary of the British Medical Association (BMA).
The former Conservative councillor said they felt “sadness, horror and anger” in the wake of the incident.
Mrs Wisely said she can’t get over the “mindlessness” behind the vandalism.
While an elected member, she campaigned for more than a decade for dedicated facilities to occupy teenagers in the city and helped to deliver sports centre Transition Extreme.
The couple contacted their insurance company who sent out a granite cleaning expert to try to remove the paint, and Mrs Wisely commented: “They did a patch test, and it looks like it will come off. We have managed to get most of it off the car too, but there are still some splashes left.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland confirmed that officers are investigating the vandalism.
In June £30,000 of valuables were taken in raid at another house in Countesswells Road and two cars were stolen from a property on Seafield Gardens.