Skip to content
Mum-of-five’s trauma as front windows shattered overnight and brazen figure captured on CCTV
A mum-of-five says she is “imagining hearing bangs all the time” after a vandal smashed her windows overnight.
Lyndsey Chester, who lives on Lanehouse Road in Thornaby, was left in shock at the weekend after coming downstairs to find the windows of her home had been shattered in what she believes is a “targeted” attack.
The 46-year-old, who had to temporarily board her windows up with cardboard in a bid to keep her home safe for the night, thinks her home was damaged because she is vocal about anti-social behaviour in her area. CCTV has captured the moment a hooded figure approaches the window before the piercing sound of smashing glass is heard in the background.
READ MORE: Boy, 15, stabbed in street after being approached by two suspects as police launch probe
Lyndsey said: “It was early Saturday morning, my son came upstairs at about 12.30am and he said: ‘Can you come downstairs mam?’ Anyway, I went down and he said somebody had put the windows through. I had a camera, I put up a camera because I had them smashed last year.
“I picked it up on my camera – the lad walked in the gate and he would stand at the gate as if he was looking at the door and checking what number the house is. Then he goes to the window and smashes the side window and then smashes the front window, you can’t see that on the camera because he is underneath it.
“It looked like someone had shot an air rifle because there were two holes, but someone told me they use spark plugs to put windows through. It was just unbelievable that he literally just walked into the front path up to the window calm as anything and just did it.”
Lyndsey, who has lived on the road for 10 years, described it as a “nice street” despite having its fair share of anti-social behaviour over time. She lives with her four sons – aged 10, 15, 17, and 25 – and added that it is “heartbreaking” to see her youngest scared over these incidents.
She explained: “My little-un when he got up, I had to say to him he can’t go downstairs yet because there was glass everywhere. I said that the windows had been put in and he said to me: ‘Why do we get targeted mam?’ And it was heartbreaking for a 10-year-old kid. When he walks down the street and he sees any of them he says: ‘Are these the bad lads?’ and he gets scared.”
‘Oh my god, it’s happened again’
Lyndsey said that this isn’t the first time the windows of her property have been smashed. She claims her window was broken in January last year on two occasions in a short space of time. Lydnsey said she was standing in her front room the moment her side window was shattered.
This has had a long-lasting impact on the Thornaby mum – with her now taking anti-depressant medication.
She said: “You wake up and you are imagining hearing bangs all the time, thinking it is the windows going through. [I feel safe] most of the time but I’m going to bed sometimes and wondering if they are going to come back because it’s a bay window and there is only one window left. On a morning I am going outside and checking that nothing happened outside on the front.”
Lyndsey believes the reason her home has fallen victim to these attacks is due to her publicly reporting crime in the area. She said: “I have got numerous messages and comments and whatnot on social media where people are calling me names because I report all the anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in the area.
“I have my own Thornaby community group on Facebook and I share stories.”
Police say there was ‘no immediate risk of threat or harm’
She now wants Cleveland Police to investigate the issue over fears it keeps happening – and has criticised the police over them not attending her home and simply calling her the following morning.
Lyndsey continued: “I rang the landlord the next day. I am having to pay for the windows myself – it cost £150 for the boarding up and I think it is going to cost another £400 for the windows to be replaced.”
A Cleveland Police spokesperson said: “Police received a report of criminal damage when a living room window was smashed on Lanehouse Road, Thornaby, around 12:45am on Saturday, June 3.
“It was determined that there was no immediate risk or threat of harm and suspects were no longer on scene, therefore a call was scheduled to make contact with the victim. Officers called the victim the next morning at 9:39am and have carried out enquiries regarding CCTV.”
READ NEXT:
