England cricketer James Vince living in fear after home attacked twice by thugs in suspected case of mistaken identity
AN ENGLAND cricket star is living in fear after his home was twice attacked by thugs – in what might be a case of mistaken identity.
James Vince, along with his wife and two young children, were woken at around 3am on a night in April to the sound of glass shattering and alarms blaring at their home near Southampton.
Vince, 33, and his family moved elsewhere temporarily during the month it took to repair the damage to the property – but just one week after they returned, a second attack was carried out.
Police have been investigating, but the ex-England batsman has been left none the wiser as to the reason for these incidents.
The attackers have not made any kind of contact or given any indication as to the motive, so one might conclude that it’s simply a case of mistaken identity.
Vince told The Telegraph: “All the experts we’ve spoken to say it looks like a money issue, unpaid debts or something.
“We have nothing to hide and know we have never been involved in anything like this. We just desperately want this to stop.”
Vince recalled how, during the first incident, he and his wife Amy awoke to the sound of smashing and alarms and had “no idea” what was going on.
They immediately went to check on their children – aged seven and three – who were “clearly very shaken up”.
By the time they had checked on the children and called the police, the attacker had gone, Vince said.
He added that “some kind of metal bar” appears to have been used in the first incident, with almost all of the windows of his two cars being smashed, along with the windows at the front of the house.
The family had security cameras and alarms installed as the damage was repaired, but when they returned to the home, a second attack took place just a few days later.
During the second attack, the perpetrators used bricks, which did not cause quite as much damage, he said.
Vince had still been awake because he had been at a dinner for heis teammate Chris Wood’s benefit year, getting home at around 11.30pm – 30 minutes before the second attack.
The new security cameras captured footage of the second incident, showing a man with a torch passing bricks over the wall to another person, who throws them at car and house windows.
Vince has now hired local crime and security experts to keep an eye on their home, where they have lived for nearly eight years.
He now feels going public with the issue may be one of the only remaining avenues he has to stop the seemingly random attacks.