A SINGLETON mother has been “devastated” by a teenager’s party invitation going “viral” on an internet social media site, attracting about 150 alcohol and drug-fuelled young people who trashed her home and caused $10,000 damage.
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Joanne Fellows of Brooker Close, Wattle Ponds, said: “I’m completely shocked to see this happen in our community, there was a total disrespect for people and property.
“I want to warn other parents about the potential of things getting out of control through social networking.
“And, I‘d like to know who supplied teenagers with alcohol.”
The party, last Saturday night, was closed down by six police at about 11.30.
A teenage girl was bashed and ambulance paramedics took a 16-year-old boy to Singleton Hospital suffering nausea and dizziness and complaining about a spiked drink.
Almost every room in the house had a hole kicked or punched through its gyprock walls.
There were 17 holes in total.
A $2000 large flat screen television set, two bedroom doors, louvre shutters between rooms and a patio heater were smashed.
An electronic game and clothes were stolen and carpets were burned by cigarettes.
Clothes from all the bedrooms were strewn about and eggs, various kitchen sauces and alcohol were splattered over floors, walls and ceilings throughout the home, garage and outdoor area.
Partygoers overflowed along the footpath right down the street, striking fear into neighbours as they smashed bottles and littered drink cans and bottles everywhere.
Information supplied to The Argus indicates that several party invitations came from the son’s social media site.
And, on Tuesday, a brief Argus report of the party being shut down by police was copied without permission and posted on the son’s social media page along with the words - “One of my proudest moments”.
Mrs Fellows said that on the day before the party a teacher from her son’s Maitland high school rang her, as she was driving to Mudgee for a planned long weekend holiday, to say rumours were rife that there was to be a big party at her home the next day.
“My son denied it, but I still rang my parents and they said they’d stay at my place over the weekend,” Mrs Fellows said.
“My son then reassured my parents there wouldn’t be a big party so they decided not to stay over.
“I now know my son had organised a small gathering of friends.”
Mrs Fellows said it was unclear to her exactly how a general party invitation spread on the social media site.
“Then all these people crashed the place, it quickly got out of control and a couple of my son’s friends rang the police,” she said.
“Eventually a neighbour rang police and when they arrived they called for back-up before they began moving everyone on.
“They had to keep half of them in the house while they moved on those outside so the situation wouldn’t escalate.”
Mrs Fellows said her son and some of his friends then worked through the night cleaning up.
“I had a feeling, so I rang a friend on Sunday morning to come around and check and she said I should come home straight away,” she said.
“You should have seen the place, it was such a mess, you couldn’t believe anyone had been up through the night cleaning anything up.
“I’ve been on my hands and knees for more than two days now cleaning and washing the clothes and I’m not finished yet.”
Mrs Fellows said she could not believe how destructive people could be.
But she was even more angered by comments she’d been told about that were posted on social media sites in the days following the party.
“They were just treating it as a joke, one girl said she wanted to see round two next weekend and another person described it as the best party in Singleton so far this year,” she said.
“It’s not funny from my point of view, we only moved into the house a little over a year ago, we worked very hard to build it and it looks as if the damage won’t be covered by insurance.
“Thankfully we’ve had an offer by a plasterer to fix the holes in the walls for free, but it’s beyond words how I feel about the people who did it.”
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