Mother of two targeted by brick throwing yobs

Damaged car

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Mother of two Carly Ellis was very fortunate not to be seriously injured when yobs hurled a brick through her car window as she was driving along Albert Royds Street around 8.30pm on Wednesday (24 September) evening. The brick was hurled from amongst a large gang of youths congregated close to the Co-op shop.

Ms Ellis was badly shaken but escaped without injury and was also relieved her two young children were not with her in the car.

Talking to Rochdale Online, Ms Ellis said: "The brick hit my front passenger side window and smashed it. I wasn't injured, however I do have two child car seats in the back of my car which are clearly visible, even when it is dark, along with sun visor's on both rear windows. Fortunately neither of my children where in the car with me at the time, which is a good job as there was glass all over one of the car seats on the passenger side.

"I didn't stop my car, but continued driving home as I was alone. I dread to think what could have happened if I had decided to stop my car to have it out with them.

"As soon as I got home I called the police and told them what had happened. They took my details and told me that someone would either ring me to discuss things further or they would send a police officer round to take my statement.

"I was shaken up at the time it happened but am now more angry than anything. I keep thinking what if my children had been in the car with me? I would be up at the hospital right now. Or what whatever item was thrown at me had gone threw my window and hit me in the head? Anything could have happened.

"I am unhappy that the police have not given me a definite answer as to whether or not they will be coming round to take my statement as, due to the things that could have happened, I believe that this is a serious offence committed by these youths and that something needs to be done. My children or someone else's children could be in the car the next time. Who knows if they are still hurling things at people's cars."

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UPDATE:

Rochdale Online was contacted by the Chief Inspector of Rochdale Police, Julian Snowball, this afternoon (Friday 26 September) to apologise for the delay in contacting Ms Ellis.

He said: "We are looking at how we responded to the incident in question and we hope not to have caused too much distress to Ms Ellis. We will try to ensure that this does not happen again and an appointment has now been made with Ms Ellis for an interview regarding the incident."

Speaking about the incident, he said: "We are currently not aware of any patterns of this type of behaviour but this was a reckless act which could have had serious implications.

"In terms of where we go from here, we would encourage anyone with any information regarding this incident to contact us on 0161 872 5050 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

"We will be contacting the area police team for the area to find out whether this is a hot spot for youths congregating and we will contact the council and other parties to see if we can do anything to prevent this kind of behaviour in the area."