Editor,

I’ve always thought it’s never good to get a wake-up call from the police, and that was the case on Monday morning, June 29 when I got a call from a deputy sheriff looking for my son. He had to tell him that his car had been vandalized.

My son was in the process of moving home from college for the summer when he had battery/alternator trouble, which caused the car to die by the Bayview Vision Clinic at Useless Bay. He couldn’t get it started, and it was late (around 10 p.m. on Sunday), so he decided to just leave it parked in the lot and deal with it in the morning. Unfortunately, someone who was high, drunk, or bored, got to the car first and broke every single window in the car. Mean, malicious destruction on a nice-looking car that my son bought with his own hard-earned money a couple years ago. And now through no fault of his own, he either has to pay $2,000-plus to replace all the windows on a $4,000 car that is already 12 years old, or just total it and start all over. (To keep car insurance at all reasonable for a young male, we did not have comprehensive coverage.)

Our son is a good kid who has worked several different jobs for several years while going to college, and it breaks my heart to see him suffer because of a senseless, vicious act of violence that he didn’t deserve. He’d expect something like this in Seattle, but not here on idyllic Whidbey Island. He’s learning first hand that bad things happen to good people and life is not always fair.

I’m sure the person who did this is not smart enough to read the newspaper, but if anybody else has heard anything or saw anything, please contact the sheriff’s office. And parents, please know where your kids are, who they are with, and what they are doing. Or you might be next to get a phone call from the police.

PAM NEWMAN

Freeland