Heather Brady thought she had been shot when she had ketchup lobbed at her
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'I was nearly blinded by ketchup pranksters'
By Anna RobertsDecember 10, 2009
Heather Brady was almost blinded when a motorist hurled a takeaway pack of ketchup at her from a speeding van.
The 24-year-old suffered internal haemorrhaging and scarring to her eye following the bizarre incident involving a white Transit van at 8.40am on Monday, November 30.
Miss Brady was walking along Barkham Road towards Wokingham train station after work when she was assaulted at the Tanhouse Lane junction.
Initially she thought she had been shot at and her eye had come out – mistaking the ketchup for blood.
Miss Brady, who works as a sales consultant at Maia in Molly Millar’s Lane, said: “I was just minding my own business.
“Next thing I felt was a ‘shot’ in my eye and I half passed out. I saw this red and thought my eye had fallen out.
“I was in agony and I kept seeing spiders and floaters in my vision. I went to eye casualty at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
“The doctor there said it was a serious case of haemorrhaging.
“He said I could have potentially been permanently blinded in one eye. They later found out my vision had changed permanently.”
Miss Brady, of Tilehurst in Reading, is hopeful her eyesight will improve. But she said for the time being her still-distorted vision was causing problems.
She added: “Even more than a week later I keep knocking into people and I can’t see them.
“I knocked over an old man because I couldn’t see him. So not only is it a disfigurement it is a social hindrance. I didn’t ask for this and I didn’t provoke the people that did it.
“They had obviously just had a takeaway and are so uneducated they thought it would be a good idea to throw something – a bit of plastic – out of a speeding car.
“It sounds ridiculous but it is not that dissimilar to a gun. If you just throw a bullet it is not dangerous. It is when it is fired at speed it is dangerous
“They didn’t mean to do this – they probably just wanted to get ketchup on me – but it is so stupid.
“Now I have to keep going back to hospital.”
PC Chris Liddicott, from Thames Valley Police, said: “I would like anyone who was in the area at the time and may have witnessed this incident, or saw the vehicle, to contact me as soon as possible.”
Call the police on 08458 505 505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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11/12/2009 at 18:29 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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11/12/2009 at 12:32 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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Seeing as they are appealing for witnesses the date and time of the incident needs correcting.
10/12/2009 at 17:48 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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