Woman's heartbreak after vintage car used in Derry Girls series vandalised

The owner of a vintage car, which was used during the filming of popular hit television series Derry Girls, has been left distraught after it was vandalised.

The collection car, a 1979 Vauxhall Chevette, was badly damaged by four unidentified individuals, who accessed private land in the Walworth Road area of Ballykelly during the early hours of Tuesday, April 2.

The damage, which included deep scratches and dents, was discovered by owner Sharleen Wray later on Tuesday.

The car, which was used during filming of season three of Derry Girls, was bought seven years ago by the Ballykelly woman. 

It featured in the second episode when Erin, Clare, Orla, Michelle and James believe Ma Mary has an affair. The car can be seen crossing the old bridge.  

The car was also supposed to be used in a movie which is to be filmed at Shane’s Castle on the first week of May. 

Sharleen never thought something like this could happen to her car as it was parked on private land belonging to her grandparents. 

“As I said to my husband today, I can’t stop crying, I’m just completely and utterly devastated,” she said.

Sharleen and her husband spent years renovating the car with the paintwork costing £4,000 alone.

Sharleen said the four individuals responsible for the vandalism were in the area in the afternoon and returned later that night.

A neighbour saw the four individuals in the area earlier in the day and went to warn Sharleen's grandparents who said that they probably meant no harm as it was the Easter holidays. 

“Then [the neighbour] was out walking his dog again that night and he came back to the door and he said look, they're definitely banging and all down there [...] but they said it’s grand.”

They only noticed the damage on Tuesday when they received a delivery from a friend. 

The friend called Sharleen’s husband and told him that an offensive image was carved into the car’s bonnet.

“The fact that they came back to the yard twice shows that they knew what they were doing,” said Sharleen. 

Owning one of these cars was a dream for Sharleen as her father owned 13 of them when she was growing up.

“I always said in my adult life ‘I want one of those’ and my father was like ‘how would you get one of those, they are like hen’s teeth!’”

However, when Sharleen spotted the blue Chevette in Belfast, she vowed she would do anything it took to buy it and nicknamed it ‘Stevie’.

Sharleen and her husband spent years and a large amount of money restoring the car, both inside and outside, with many of the parts having to be imported.

Following the incident, CCTV and doorbell camera footage, captured between 2am and 3am on Tuesday, were uploaded to Facebook showing individuals trying to access parked cars in the Neptune Crescent and Riverview areas of Ballykelly. 

One of the videos clearly shows four individuals trying to open car doors and using torches to look inside the vehicles before running away. 

Sharleen is now calling on anyone who has any information to come forward and she has even offered a reward of £1,000.

“Hopefully with the power of social media and the fact that I've put a reward on it, someone may come forward,” said Sharleen.

A PSNI spokesperson added: “Enquiries are ongoing and officers would ask anyone who noticed any recent suspicious activity in the area to contact them in Limavady on 101, quoting reference number 1465 02/04/24. 

“A report can be submitted online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/ or you can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/.”