A 41-year-old St George’s man has been arrested after numerous vehicles around Hamilton were vandalised yesterday.

Several cars belonging to staff at Dellwood Middle School were damaged when someone threw white paint on the vehicles after jumping over a wall onto school property.

More vehicles were similarly vandalised at Par-la-Ville parking lot and Elliott Street parking lot.

Todd Fox, Deputy Principal of Dellwood Middle School, told The Royal Gazette: “We’re not exactly sure what happened here, we’re hoping that the cameras are able to catch everything that happened. We just know that someone jumped over the wall earlier with a tin of paint and threw paint on three cars. That’s about all that we know right now.

“It makes me really angry seeing something like this, especially on the first day back. It’s normally a joyous day but to have it completely ruined by this act of vandalism is really frustrating to see. We are hoping that the cameras picked up who it was and that the person is brought to justice.”

The Royal Gazette visited the scenes and found that blue paint had been splattered on cars at Elliott Street and orange paint at Par-la-Ville.

Ronda and Chris Smith were cleaning the paint from their car at the Elliott Street car park when we arrived. Mr Smith said: “I mean it’s ridiculous, what can we really say? It’s irritating to get a phone call from someone saying that there’s paint spilt all over your car and you don’t know who’s done it.

“Luckily, we got here in time to clean it up before it actually dried. These other people may be messed right up if that paint on their cars dries before they get here.”

One woman, who preferred not to be named, added: “It’s crazy, it’s shocking to come out and see that this has been done. You knock off from work and come out to your car and if you don’t know [who did it], what can you do? Usually, parking lots say that you’re liable for anything that happens to your car if you park here, so you’re on your own which is not a good thing. I was lucky today.”

In a statement released yesterday, a police spokesman said the incidents took place sometime between 9am and 1pm and that officers had attended the various scenes. “Any witnesses to these incidents of wilful damage or persons with information regarding the individual(s) responsible should contact the main police telephone number at 295-0011.”

Those whose vehicles have been damaged are urged to visit the Hamilton Police Station on Victoria Street to make an official report.