Elderly man caught in shocking car park act: 'Blows my mind'
It's not the first time elderly Australians have been caught allegedly keying a stranger's car.
An elderly man has been caught on camera brazenly "keying" a parked car in a busy shopping centre, leaving Aussies in "shock" over the "disgusting" act.
The incident took place at the Uni Hill shopping centre car park in Bundoora in Melbourne on Sunday between 11.15 and 11.30am. Dashcam footage seemingly taken from the car in question and uploaded to social media shows an elderly man walking with a cane quickly approach the vehicle.
The man, dressed in grey and hobbling toward the car with a limp, can then be seen appearing to press a key down onto the passenger side of the car, holding it while digging it into the paint and dragging it along the side of the vehicle.
Dashcam captures man's brazen act
Without looking around to see who might've seen him, the man then continues into the shopping centre before returning promptly with a newspaper. He then exits the camera frame in the same direction from which he came.
The video was posted to social media, attracting over 2,000 interactions and 75,000 views. Observers were "in shock" over "why people do this". "That’s disgusting! We work so hard for things. I can’t believe the lack of respect from an elderly person," one woman said. "Wow. Why do people feel the need to do this! Blows my mind," another wrote.
Aussies in shock at 'keying' act
"That's unreal! It's bad enough that anyone does that, but to get to that age in life and still be so immature is just something else!" a second wrote. "Karma will catch him," another said.
Many others said that although "keying" somebody else's car is inexcusable, the man might've felt annoyed at the fact that somebody parked in a mobility bay meant for those with accessibility issues. "This looks like an example of someone’s parked in a mobility park and someone thinks he needed it more," a woman said.
"He shouldn't be keying cars, but are you parked in a parking spot or clearway?" another asked.
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Victoria Police for comment.
Similar 'keying' incident in Brisbane last year
"Definitely a case of no-one parks in my spot," said a third. "Whats with all the oldies keying cars over the last few years?" another questioned, pointing to a similar case of car keying in Brisbane late last year.
The elderly duo in that incident targeted a BMW first, before moving onto a Tesla. Unbeknownst to the pair, the electric vehicle's external cameras caught the entire thing. The Tesla driver, who chose to remain anonymous, was reportedly quoted $2,000 in damages. The couple were ordered in court to pay almost $5,000 in costs to cover damages to both cars.
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