‘Everyone Makes Mistakes’: Marilù’s Cafe ‘Vandals’ Give Their Side Of The Story
The ‘vandals’ behind the accidental destruction of plant pots outside a Siġġiewi restaurant have opened up about that happened that fateful night – and how they were already making amends to fix what they broke when the public turned on them.
Since then, the damaged pots have been replaced by the ‘vandals’ themselves.
Speaking to Lovin Malta under the condition of anonymity, a young Maltese man intimate with what happened when his friend’s vehicle was filmed reversing into and crushing a number of vintage plant pots outside Marilù’s restaurant explained what happened.
Find his account in its totality below; it has been edited by Lovin Malta for brevity and conciseness.
“It was not at all what it seems like, it was all a mistake.”
On what we thought was going to be a normal Sunday night, my friends and I, including the driver of the van seen in the CCTV footage shown by Marilù Vella, decided that we should go out and have something to eat in a Siġġiewi restaurant.
Upon arriving at the destination my friend wanted to stop on the side of the road to wait for another car in the group, in an area just parallel to the plants (not on them).
Being a fairly tall vehicle, the driver did not see the plants and accidentally ended up on top of them.
At first he thought that he had driven onto the sidewalk and reversed the vehicle and tried again. At that point the rear passenger (behind the front passenger) started laughing and told him he was a bad driver as a joke.
On the second try, he knew that it was not the sidewalk he was on.
The front passenger looked out the window and notified the driver there were some plants under the van that he had broken into pieces.
He wanted to sort out the situation before everything got out of proportion, like what happened after the video was posted. At that point, he found a nearby parking lot to leave his vehicle in and immediately went to the Siġġiewi Police Station to report this accident.
The Siggiewi police station was closed, so he proceeded to go to the Rabat Police Station. At this point, he had not seen that a video had already been posted in an online Siġġiewi group.
On Monday morning, he was contacted by the police and they sorted out the situation and on the same day the driver of the van and four other people replaced everything, and it was like nothing had happened.
I would like to point out that in my opinion and some other people, the plants were originally not placed in a safe place. They were placed on the edge of the sidewalk.
It is a huge hazard and inconvenience for people to use the sidewalk especially if they make use of a pushchair or wheelchair and is impossible to see from the mirror since they are very low to the ground.
I would also like to point out that I believe the establishment owner was wrong to post that video without notifying the police beforehand. If they had notified the police before, they would have let her know that there was already a report from the driver.
My friend and the rear passenger would have never appeared on social media for something done as a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes and people need to see both sides of the story and not half of it before passing judgment.
If the driver wanted to hide, he would not have parked the vehicle close to the scene and would have ran away.
I am writing this purely in hopes of getting the whole truth out from this situation and clear my friend’s name.
What do you make of their version of events?
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