A LAVINGTON war widow and her daughter will be forced to pay a fine after their car was written off in a cruel prank.
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Lynette Lyon and her daughter Sandra Whish-Wilson were in good spirits when they left their Colley Street home on Thursday evening last week.
But when Ms Whish-Wilson returned on foot, the blue Mazda she shares with her mum was nowhere to be seen.
Somebody had opened the unlocked car and let the handbrake off.
The car rolled down the steep road and crashed into the neighbour’s brick fence.
“I mean, you’re not even in the car but it’s had an accident,” Ms Whish-Wilson said.
“Mum had gone out, too, so whoever it was had waited for the house to be vacated.
“It could have killed someone.”
Despite a string of similar incidents in the street, Ms Whish-Wilson and Mrs Lyon weren’t concerned about leaving the car unlocked for about 40 minutes while they went out.
For that they will have to pay, and there is no clue to the perpetrator.
A police officer told the women he had no option but to fine them for leaving the car unlocked — though how much remains to be seen.
There’s also the cost of fixing their neighbour’s fence.
The women have no other means of transport.
Mrs Lyon said that whoever it was needed to grow up.
“My husband died in Vietnam trying to keep the country free for everyone else and this is what happens,” she said.
“Whoever did this is, they are the lowest form of scum — thanks for stuffing our Christmas.”
Mrs Lyon and her family have received help from Albury Legacy since husband Terrence was killed in action in 1971.
But she said this problem was “too big for even them to solve”.
Ms Whish-Wilson’s only options are walking or buying a bike if she wants to visit her sick granddaughter, 3, in Wodonga.
After falling from a tree recently the child spent time in the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“Mum and I will battle on,” Ms Whish-Wilson said.
“Seeing parents with seriously sick kids in the hospital puts things into perspective.”