Teens smash Southampton showroom using catapult and hammer

Staff at Sparks Commercial Services have been left gobsmacked by the attack that has come in eight months into a £1m renovation at their new premises at the old Nissan Garage on West Way in Southampton.

CCTV shows teenagers in the building smashing windows and putting holes in brand new plaster walls.

Marketing manager Neil Smith told the Echo the vandalism has but back the renovation which started in July last year.

Holes were made in plaster walls and sockets were smashed after vandals broke in. (Image: Newsquest) Windows at two diggers left on site were also broken and CCTV shows the trio then pulling chairs into the building, “making it their den for the weekend”.

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“Sunlight was streaming through the window so it’s not late at night, they’re very brazen,” Neil said.

Vandals used a catapult to smash glass windows throughout the head office and showroom. (Image: Newsquest) “They were literally going around the site with a catapult. They put holes in the plaster wall which was all new, they smashed through windows which were all new. One picked up a piece of wood and went around smashing stuff up.”

Damage will delay the opening of the new head office, which is set to create 25 jobs in Southampton.

Some brand new plaster walls had holes punched all the way through. (Image: Newsquest) Sparks is asking anyone with information to come forward. Forensics have visited the site and police told the Echo “enquiries into this incident are currently ongoing”.

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Neil added: “If we start to calculate the cost of all of this so far, it’s looking like it could be circa £100k in terms of getting the glass replaced, the back door replaced, the plaster and the ceiling redone.”

Some of the brand new double glazed windows had holes put through them, while others were completely smashed. (Image: Newsquest)

'It looks like they were having a picnic in'

Some windows were completely shattered and will have to be entirely replaced, like the one Neil Smith is standing in front of here. (Image: Newsquest) A timelapse camera caught the teenagers but the main CCTV was off at the time.

Images taken by the camera shows the vandals moving through the building, causing damage as they do.

A timelapse camera caught three people inside the building. (Image: Sparks Commercial Services) They pulled chairs down from the office areas and sat in the showroom, with Neil saying that they “made it their den for the weekend”.

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“It looks like they were having a picnic,” he said.

The timelapse camera also caught photos of a catapult being pulled back inside the building. (Image: Sparks Commercial Services) “The arrogance is ridiculous. When I was a kid, I’d go down to the Southampton common and make a den and sit it in for a while, but never would I ever have done any harm.”

Neil said tools were also taken from the site.

The new head office at West Way will also feature a showroom which will allow Sparks to sell Renault trucks directly to consumer for the first time.