3 minute read

Vet clinic hit by vehicle

KELLY AND IAN Bellevue Vet Clinic

At 2 a.m. on the 25 of June we awoke to a commotion on the street. Our bedroom window overlooks the Main Street and the old dairy ice cream store. We could hear yelling and screeching of tires.

For fear of damage to our own car, which was parked on the side street, I got out of bed and looked outside. I saw a white truck turning out from in front of the clinic, into the street and onto the other side of the road, where it then proceeded to ram a stationary blue car that was idling in front of the ice cream shop. A few people were left fighting in the street after the car and truck sped off.

They quickly scattered. I called the police to advise of the disturbance, then shortly after our security company called to advise a motion sensor was set off in the clinic. At this point we didn’t know what damage had occurred to the front of the building. We feared that the left-over people were trying to break in and ran down to see what had happened.

We then we saw the massive damage to the front of our building. The glass panels were shattered and the structure bent and broken in various places. Inside the clinic, our reception desk was hit badly with multiple drawers broken and the back end of the desk broken out. It doesn’t appear that anyone had entered the clinic or attempted to steal anything, making us think that we were not a target and the damage to our building was accidental.

We cleaned up the site as best as we could to enable placement of a temporary barricade for the remainder of the early morning until we could get it properly fixed. We had planned to do this ourselves when the hardware store opened.

Later that morning I posted the incident on Facebook so people could help give tips to the police and understand why the clinic was in such disarray. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a very kind phone call from Lorne at Complete Exteriors who offered to come and board up the clinic!

Later in the day John Clarke offered to collect the debris and take it to the tip for us while we continued the temporary repairs and clean up. We received many offers of help and assistance from a lot of people, and we are so thankful for the support and care shown by our small community.

That’s about it! I made contact with the police later on and they advised they know who is involved and charges will be laid accordingly.