It's not enough that streets are becoming more dangerous these days.

Being inside your home is too.

I had just finished having a shower on Sunday, when I heard my daughter screaming and running up the stairs.

If she'd spotted a spider she wouldn't react in such an extreme way, so I couldn't imagine what was wrong with her. But she was very frightened, her face said it all.

She told me something had shot through the window.

Bear in mind the windows and curtains are closed.

I went into the living room expecting a pile of glass on the floor and a gaping hole where the window should be. But upon inspection I couldn't see anything.. at first. Then I noticed on the bend of the bay window, a hole in the pane, and glass on the window sill and floor.

I peered out, only to see a man walking away on the other side of the road with a hoodie on. It might have been him.

My first thought was it was linked to the 'year I've had'. If you've read the papers you'll know, but if not I'm not repeating it.

I called the police who soon put my mind at rest. He said a house in the vicinity had also had the same done to it and they were calling there next, and it was probably kids.

I am really angry that these mindless yobs are roaming the streets at night pointing guns and suchlike at houses and firing.

Had the curtain been open, the object could have quite easily hit my daughter, causing serious, if not fatal, harm.

Luckily this wasn't the outcome, but so easily could have been.

Who do these people think they are.

As it is, we're safe, but it took a lot of calming my daughter down. She followed my every move. She jumped if I spoke suddenly or in more than a soft reassuring whisper to her.

These 'kids' have been having a laugh, gone home and probably slept well in their beds, not knowing they've just frightened an eight-year-old child half to death and left her and myself feeling unsettled throughout the night.

I don't wish bad on anyone, but if this ever happens to them now or in the future, I share no sympathy.

In fact if they shoot each other, it won't come anywhere near the fright they gave my daughter.

Site Editor's Note

What do you think about BB guns? Are they toys or dangerous weapons? Should they be banned? Have you any experience of them good or bad? Write in and tell us at My York News.

Your comments:

I am appalled to read what happened to Annette Logan and her daughter, but it is indicative of England today. These "kids" can do what they want, take what they want and nobody can do anything about it. The police have no powers over them, the teachers certainly have no power over them. The only people that could have is their parents, and they seem to have abdicated the responsibility completely.

These hooligans are frightened of nobody, because they are safe in the knowledge that nothing will happen to them. If this child had been injured and the culprit found, the excuse would have been - it was just a bit of fun and I didn't mean to hurt anyone. Well that's not good enough, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. They are no longer taught respect for each other either by their parents or at school.

I recently heard a tale in my local area where a group of 20 children had followed a young girl home from youth club. They congregated outside her house, pulled down fencing and smashed a window. They climbed onto a car parked in the drive to try to get in through an upstairs window and all the time a women and her two daughters were terrified in the house.

The police were called, but when they arrived admitted they probably wouldn't be able do anything, and advised the mother to complain to the school. Some of the group could be identified by the girl and the police said "they had just come off tag". So much for tagging, it obviously is no deterent at all. I dread to think what would have happened if they had actually got hold of the girl. I am told the majority of this group were girls.

Look at the recent stories in the papers about the young girl who had her face slashed at school, and another one stabbed whilst in the lunch queue at school.

I say give the police back the authority to lock these hooligans up and the teachers the authority to cane them when they deserve it.

Mandy Cox, Selby

Updated: 15:27 Friday, December 09, 2005