Let me come clean. I am Darren Lock. I am Darren Lock, the owner of Horsford News. Up until 3.15am on 19th October 2008, I worked seven days a week for virtually nothing in a newsagents in a village of Horsford, just outside Norwich in Norfolk. I worked to pay the mortgage to put a roof over my family’s head. It is a tough life. Customers are unforgiving, and at worst, rude. I’ve lost more money running this business than I needed too, but you realise that running a newsagents is a bit like plugging a dam with your finger only to find another breach happens down the line.
On Sunday morning, a speeding car struck my house at 75mph. We know it was that speed because that’s what the speedometer was stuck out when they cut the female driver from the car. In the car were three children and another passenger, who fled the scene. I saw him run off as I walking into my living room to see that there was no side life on my house.

We were evacuated. The building deemed unsafe. But I take my hat off to the building workers who shored up the structure and weatherproofed it. It broke my heart to see baby Verity’s high chair and toys on display from the street below. Heck, I even made the lead news story on Anglia Tonight on Sunday. I am a star – whoopee fucking do!
I don’t think I’ll ever recover from it. But then the nightmare only starts.
For two days, we have been fighting with insurers to get temporary accommodation (luckily we have somewhere very temporary to live) and I’ve been under increasing pressure to reopen the business.
This is life at its rawest. But in this Idiot Nation, populated by morons and noddies, the culprit will probably get a tap on the head and sent on their way – their life completely unaffected by this catastrophe. Remember, this person was driving uphill at 75mph in a 20mph zone.
We are lucky that none of us were killed…for that I thank God.

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