So there was this bloke standing on the roof of his van, smashing it to bits with a sledgehammerwhen the coppers showed up and figured out why, they were absolutely gutted.
It all kicked off on this narrow street in an old part of town. Out of nowhere came this horrible, echoing *bang*, like someone was whacking a thick metal sheet with all their might. People jumped and turned to look. And there he wasan older chap with grey hair, standing on top of a white van, gripping a massive sledgehammer in both hands.
Everyone just froze, watching in horror as he brought it down again and again. The roof was already caved in, bits of paint and metal flying everywhere. The windscreen, which had been fine just a minute ago, was now a spiderweb of cracks before it finally shattered under another blow. Each swing sent echoes bouncing off the buildings around them.
The man was shouting something between swings, but his words were all broken upjust ragged bits of screaming that sounded like curses or desperate pleas. Nobody could make sense of it.
One of the bystanders, hands shaking, fished out their phone and called the police. A few minutes later, sirens wailed as a patrol car screeched to a stop. Two officers rushed over, carefully but firmly pulling the man down and taking the sledgehammer off him.
Once he was on the ground, nobody expected what happened next. He didnt resist. Just sat on the kerb, buried his face in his hands, and started quietly sobbing. The officers crouched beside him, asking what was going onand what they heard next left them stunned.
Turns out, his son had been in a horrible crash a few days earlier. The doctors fought to save him, but it was no use.
The van he was smashing up? That was the very same one his boy had died in. The old man couldnt even look at it without his heart tearing in two. Every dent, every scratch was a reminder. So in a moment of pure grief, he grabbed the sledgehammer and just lost it.
As he told them, his voice kept breaking. One of the coppers had tears in his eyes. Right then, nobody saw a vandal or a madmanjust a broken-hearted dad trying to cope the only way he knew how.
The street went dead quiet. The same people whod been gawking before now stood there with their heads down. And the man, wiping his face, just whispered that he couldnt take the pain anymoreit was eating him alive.
