‘I just let rip at the cars:’ After months of putting up with boyracers, this dad hit them with 500 paintballs

Tuesday, 26 May 2026

Father of two young children Ben Savidge endured months of late night noise from a group of youths and boyracers.

Complaints to council and police did not result any any action to resolve the situation faced by Savidge and other neighbours.

At the ‘end of his tether’ Savidge fired 500 paintballs towards cars gathered at site. He was arrested at his home by the Armed Offenders Squad and received his first conviction.

A father of two young children had reached the end of his tether with a group of boyracers who spent months keeping the household awake, so took desperate (and illegal) measures with a paintball gun.

Ben Savidge, 34, his partner and two children aged 1 and 2 moved into their house near the new Napier subdivision of Mission Hills about 18 months ago.

Within months of moving in it became apparent that a plot in the subdivision was a popular night haunt for youths in dozens of cars who would listen to blaring “doof doof” music that was so loud it shook the walls of houses.

The spot was about 100 metres away from Savidge’s house.

The youths would party, drink, yell, rev their cars and do the occasional burnout from around 8pm into the early hours of the next morning.

Savidge drove up and attempted to speak with them in a bid to get the noise down, but that didn’t go well, became heated, and he retreated to his house.

He says he and other residents called Napier City Council numerous times over many months hoping it might send out a noise control officer, or do something about the situation, but that came to nothing.

“The council tell me they can’t do anything because it’s not happening at a domestic house or anything like that. They say it's the police's issue. So we bounce back to the police again. Yeah, it doesn't actually progress anyway. It's an absolute joke to be honest,” he says.

He said he and his partner had called police “at least 10 times” over the past year, and knew his neighbour had called at least five times, but these calls also too came to naught.

“They didn't do anything, or they were too late, or they were too busy,” Savidge says.

“It was driving us nuts. The kids were waking up crying because they can feel the vibration from the noise. So I started to get ratty, not getting much sleep,” he says.

“I was really pissed off, because you can't do anything about it”.

He snapped on a Saturday evening in February.

He grabbed his paintball gun, crept up to a vantage point with a good view of dozens of youths gathered around about 10 parked cars.

Then, over several minutes, he fired 500 paintballs at the cars.

“I just let rip at the cars. They just all scattered. Some of them ran down the hill, some of them ran and jumped in their cars. I was just laughing my head off, but, yeah, they were all quite petrified, I imagine,” he says.

He made his way back to his house.

But a very short time later the house was surrounded by the Armed Offender’s Squad.

“There was about seven cop cars up and down the road. They all had guns, dogs… I told them what I’d done. They arrested me and I was charged with presenting a restricted weapon.

Savidge, an electrician and refrigeration engineer, had no previous convictions.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 hours community work and had his paintball gun confiscated.

He’s taken that on the chin, and accepts he’d overreacted.

But the youths continue to gather and carry on in the same manner, and Savidge and his partner and their neighbours continue to make complaints.

“I think the council needs to put in speed bumps to stop them racing up there, and some way of stopping them going there. It’s dangerous. I keep saying it’s a nice new area that people, families are buying into, but they’re not going to want to buy here if they know all these boyracers are hanging around,” he says.

“We’re still complaining about it up to this day. But I obviously can't do anything, and I'm a little bit wiser and what not to do, but it feels like they’re just getting away with it,” he says.

He said the youths knew who he was and have started coming onto his driveway, “doing a skid and buggering off”.

“They're trying to bait me, and every so often, you can hear them tooting and shouting at me. They try and call us out to have a fight”.

Savidge didn’t believe he had hit any of the people and the police didn’t tell him he had. And he wasn’t ordered to pay any reparation in relation to the cars that were hit.

Eastern District Prevention Manager Inspector Andy Sloan told Stuff police have received reports of antisocial behaviour in the Mission Hill area however on several occasions, those involved have dispersed prior to Police arriving.

“In one case, officers moved a group on from the area, and patrols have been carried out during weekends and at night,” Sloan said.

“That said, we understand the frustration with the behaviour and the disruption it causes to people’s lives, especially young children.

“Police work with our partner agencies to tackle this antisocial behaviour, with engineering changes to roading or installation of CCTV, however, we still need the community’s help.”

Napier City Council told Stuff they weren’t aware of any complaints.