Mob trashes a beloved Mazda at unofficial homecoming party

5,000-person party left a trail of damage in Hamilton

Kathy Renwald

Oct 07, 2021 • October 7, 2021 • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 was trashed at a "fake" McMaster University homecoming party attended by about 5,000 partiers. "It was 360 destroyed," Hogan said after she saw her bashed up car at a junkyard. Photo by Kathy Renwald

Two days after her car was trashed by an unruly mob at a fake McMaster University homecoming party, $10,000 has been raised for Ashley Hogan to replace her beloved Mazda3.

“It was the first car I ever owned,” says the 18-year-old. “I bought it with five thousand dollars I earned working at a Dairy Queen in Hamilton.”

Hogan is a McMaster student too, but she wan’t in the crowd of 5,000 party goers who took over a residential street near the University.

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Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 sits at a junkyard after being bashed and tipped over at a fake McMaster University homecoming party where 5,000 students took over a residential street in Hamilton. Photo by Supplied by Ashley Hogan
Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 sits at a junkyard after being bashed and tipped over at a fake McMaster University homecoming party where 5,000 students took over a residential street in Hamilton. Photo by Supplied by Ashley Hogan
Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 sits at a junkyard after being bashed and tipped over at a fake McMaster University homecoming party where 5,000 students took over a residential street in Hamilton. Photo by Supplied by Ashley Hogan
Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 sits at a junkyard after being bashed and tipped over at a fake McMaster University homecoming party where 5,000 students took over a residential street in Hamilton. Photo by Supplied by Ashley Hogan
Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 sits at a junkyard after being bashed and tipped over at a fake McMaster University homecoming party where 5,000 students took over a residential street in Hamilton. Photo by Supplied by Ashley Hogan
Ashley Hogan's Mazda3 sits at a junkyard after being bashed and tipped over at a fake McMaster University homecoming party where 5,000 students took over a residential street in Hamilton. Photo by Supplied by Ashley Hogan

Hogan, the coxie of a McMaster women’s 8 rowing team, was competing in Kingston as the uncontrolled mob attacked her car.

But then the Twitter photos started arriving on her phone. They showed the smashed windshield, doors bent in their frames, and finally video of a group of students rolling the Mazda over, crushing the roof.

“I’m really upset and disappointed,” says the social science student.

Her car ended up in a junkyard and that’s where she saw the damage first hand. Beer bottles were stuck in the engine compartment, graffiti covered the hood, mouldings were ripped off and, “There were fluids all over the inside, it was 360 destroyed” Hogan says.

A friend started a Go Fund Me page in hopes of raising the $5,000 Hogan paid for her car. Within two days the fund was closed upon reaching $10,000.

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But Hogan doesn’t intend to spend all that money on a car.

“It’s not a great investment,” she says.

Instead she wants to fix up property damage done by swarming students to the house she rents and her neighbours.

“I know people were afraid to come out of their homes; I would have been.”

For now she is driving a rental car until insurance decides if her car is a write-off. As for a replacement she wants another car with a manual transmission.

“I taught myself how to drive it in an empty parking lot. I really liked it, it’s safer — a manual makes it harder to text.”

Several charges have been laid by Hamilton police in connection with the fake homecoming party, and police are still viewing video and photos of the car trashing.