Three campers have had their vehicles damaged while sleeping near the Clifden Suspension Bridge in Southland over the weekend.
One man, who wishes to remain anonymous, was camping in the area and told Newshub there were roughly 16 people asleep at the site when a man "threw gravel at cars" while doing burnouts.
"There were around eight vehicles parked at the site when this happened, so roughly 16 campers were there."
"At first we noticed this orange ute down by the riverbed doing doughnuts, about 500 metres from where everyone was camping," he explained.
"Initially, I woke up the noise at about midnight and went to have a look, then just went back to bed."
He said soon after, the man then turned up to the campsite and started doing "doughnuts right next to the parked vehicles".
"This guy was doing full circles, throwing gravel at all the vehicles," he said.
"Two vehicles belonging to tourists copped the worst of the stones. They went straight through their back windows, and glass went flying everywhere. Their windows were totally smashed in.
He said one vehicle belonged to one tourist, while another belonged to two.
"It's really dangerous, there could've been babies asleep or something in those cars. We were all traumatised and none of us could sleep. "
He said he woke up to all the noise.
"Fortunately I had my spotlight, and as he was doing his second round, I basically blinded the asshole with my light. Then he just drove off," he said.
"At this point, I could already hear the tourists calling the police."
However, he said the damage didn't stop there.
"After about half an hour later, he came back and did it all over again," he said.
"This isn't some young teenager having a laugh, this is a man in his 30s being malicious."
He said campers were then "showered with stones" as they stood by their vehicles and watched him.
"He just kept going even though we were standing outside," he said. "He did another two full laps then just drove off again".
"Doing the same thing twice is just plain evil. He was obviously out to do harm."
Police confirmed with Newshub that they received two reports of damage to vehicles on Saturday 23 March.
"A report of a vehicle doing burnouts at the campground on Bates Road about 11.55pm, Saturday. It does note damage to two vehicles from stones," a spokesperson said.
"A similar report was made about 12.30am."
