A disabled Scots war veteran who was injured in a bomb blast while serving for his country has had his lifeline specially adapted car vandalised in a callous attack.
Joe Patterson, 64, served in the Royal Marine for nine years between 1974 and 1983. The war hero, who suffers from PTSD, was eventually discharged after suffering a head and foot injury following a blast while on foot patrol in Northern Ireland in 1980.
Joe, from East Calder in West Lothian, has been unable to move his right foot since the he was injured, meaning he has to drive a specially adapted automatic car with a left-foot accelerator. However, just days after Christmas on Wednesday, December 28, the vehicle was covered in glue outside his home on Firbank Grove by a sick thug who caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage and left Joe without use of the vehicle while it's resprayed.
Speaking to the Record, Joe said: "The fact that someone has gone out of their way to destroy this car is unbelievable. It has made both me and my wife so angry.
"I felt dreadful seeing it destroyed like this. The car is adapted because my right foot doesn't work after I was injured in the bomb blast.
"We will be without the car while it has to be away to be resprayed."
Police have since launched a probe into the incident. Joe says a neighbour managed to capture the attack on CCTV but the footage was of too poor quality for officers to recognise the culprit.
In the meantime cops have taken the container used to douse the glue on top of the car away for DNA testing.
Joe added: "We feel like this is a targeted attack and we are terrified in case they do this again. It's going to cost a lot of money to repair it as they have to strip it right back to the bare metal or replace a whole quarter and respray.
"The rear end quarter has to get a full respray and any plastic has to be replaced. It is insured but we will have to pay the £100 excess.
"Thankfully we can use the vehicle at the moment but I won't have a car while it's being repaired and we can't get a courtesy car as this is specially adapted."
Officers say their enquiries into the incident are ongoing. Anyone with information relating to the crime are urged to contact police on 101.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Enquiries are ongoing following a report of a vandalism to a car parked on Firbank Grove, East Calder, on Wednesday, December 28.”
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