While they were “just little ones” because he had been in the front of the car, Cook said there had been “plenty of blood”.
“If we had our grandchildren in the [back of the] vehicle, they would have been badly cut.”
He said the incident had given the couple “a hell of a fright”.
“You can’t really describe it unless you’re in it, but it was pretty bad. I managed to just maintain control of the vehicle and then just speed off down the motorway.”
While the couple initially suspected an object had been thrown at the car, he said staff at Toyota believed the damage should be attributed to a BB gun pellet.
“They said to break the glass like that you can’t do it by throwing something at it, and they said there’s quite a few incidents of BB gun shootings they’re aware of.”
The vehicle repairs have cost the couple $6000, most of which covered repainting the driver’s door, passenger’s door, rear guard, and right along the roof.
“They had to respray the side and replace bits that had glass damage to them and everything.”
Cook has spoken out amid reports of damage to vehicles and homes on Auckland’s North Shore caused by BB gun shootings, which prompted a police investigation into the incidents.
While Cook decided not to report the incident because he thought it would be difficult to identify the men, the reports of similar incidents had prompted him to share his experience.
He feared the potential consequences could have been far worse.
“If I had have lost control of [the caravan] or say swayed or whatever, it could have been quite a serious incident.”