Police hunt after vegetables hurled at moving vehicles in Devon

Police are investigating more than a dozen incidents of large vegetables being thrown at moving vehicles
Pixabay
Rebecca Speare-Cole20 January 2020
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Police are investigating more than a dozen incidents of large vegetables being thrown at moving vehicles.

In the latest incident a swede was lobbed at a police armed response patrol car responding to an emergency on Sunday night, smashing its windscreen and causing £500 of damage.

A fellow officer from the armed response unit said those in the car at the time were "fine, but very annoyed" and were unable to attend the incident they had been called out to.

Police said this was the 17th recorded incident of large vegetables, such as turnips and swedes, being thrown at vehicles on the A380 between Newton Abbot and Torquay in Devon since November last year.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: "At 8.40pm on January 19 the windscreen of a marked police vehicle was damaged by an object, believed to be a swede, thrown from the side of the road at it was driving on Hellevoetsluis Way, Torquay.

"The vehicle was on its way to another call and the damage to the windscreen is estimated at £500.

"Officers are continuing their inquiries and are asking for anyone with information to contact police."

Last month, a motorist was driving home when a swede smashed into the side of his silver Range Rover.

In a third incident, another motorist said a turnip had been chucked from a bridge damaging their car.

"This is now the 17th recorded incident since November 6 2019 where objects have been thrown at vehicles on the A380 between Newton Abbot and Torquay," the spokesman said.

"A substantial amount of damage has been caused to vehicles and this has the potential to cause a serious accident.

"Objects have been thrown from various bridges at different times on different days of the week.

"Work continues to identify offenders."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in