By Brendan Rees
Casey residents have been left counting the costs after finding their cars scratched and damaged at various carparks.
Vandals have targeted cars at Casey ARC, Casey RACE, Hunt Club Village shopping centre, Springhill shopping centre, and Fountain Gate shopping centre, according to several incidents reported on the Casey Crime Facebook page.
A Cranbourne East man has told how he came back from shopping to find his car had been ‘keyed’ on the bonnet.
Aaron Van Den Boogaard parked his Toyota Camry at Hunt Club Village shopping centre in Cranbourne East on Thursday 9 May between 8.30pm and 8.45pm.
But when he came back within 15 to 20 minutes he found the scratch marks.
Asked why he thinks her car was targeted; he said had no idea apart from someone disliking his Hawthorn Football Club stickers on his car.
“I went inside, got shopping and come back and it was there.
“I did not park in any spot where I shouldn’t have parked,” he said.
“I couldn’t see any tool, anything sharp that could have done it… I didn’t see any other damage, no break in.
“It’s 400 to 500 dollars I don’t want to spend on a car. Excess is about $500. A panel shop is about 450-500 I got quoted. It’s no better,” he added.
Mr Van Den Boogaard said he would approach the shopping centre as to whether there was any CCTV footage.
Lisa Dobson from Cranbourne said she was also gutted to discover her Holden Commodore, worth $30,000, had been keyed at Springhill shopping centre carpark recently.
She said her husband had been in the Cranbourne centre for about half-an-hour when someone “walked past with a key down the side.”
“They got a blatant disregard for other people’s stuff,” she said.
“I managed to get some of that out with some lovely stuff called paint doctor but the other stuff is just too deep into the paint. It will be a respray job on the door.”
According to Ms Dobson, she spoke with staff at Springhill shopping centre who said their CCTV cameras didn’t cover the carpark.
“They only cover the main walk areas…sometimes even having camera around the place is pointless.”
“We take care of our things and you get some rotten stinker that comes along and has a blatant disregard for what you work hard for.”
Ms Dobson said they hadn’t looked into getting the doors repaired: “Mix match paint doesn’t look real good; probably invest in a full respray at some stage.”
She added: “You’re still up for the excess.”
Victoria Police have been contacted for comment.
