Only On 2: Vandal Strikes Long Beach Neighborhood Slashing More Than A Dozen Tires
LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A vandal, or vandals, struck a Long Beach neighborhood this weekend raising the ire of homeowners.
It's a story that is Only On 2.
CBS2's Greg Mills spoke to frustrated homeowners.
More than a dozen residents in the University Park Estates section of Long Beach awoke to find their tires slashed.
AAA's Julien White has spent a good portion of the weekend fixing the flats.
"Pretty busy for the last two days. A lot of tire slashes," White said.
Mills was there when he was replacing Pauline Klein's tires. She discovered her front tire was slashed when she walked outside Sunday morning.
"I know my neighbors also had theirs slashed the night before," Klein said.
Vandals hit 6th Street and Margo Avenue hard -- that seemed to be their prime target.
"It looks like knives from the couple tires I've changed. They've been slashing them on the sidewall. A couple had multiple tires slashed so they had to be towed," White said.
"We didn't know we had two flat tires. It happened last night," said Patricia Pearce who lives a block away.
Everyone Mills spoke to believe the vandal or vandals were just committing a prank and not specifically targeting people. Still, it's a costly prank.
Tires can cost as much as $200 a piece and the Pearce had to replace two of them.
She has a $500 insurance deductible so it means this will come out of her pocket.
"It's awful. It's terrible, it's gonna be terribly expensive," said Pearce.
Tom Rowe's kept up with the story on the University Park Estates Neighborhood Association Facebook page.
So far, Rowe has been lucky. His tires haven't been touched. But he told Mills he feels for his neighbors who have had to deal with the nuisance.
While residents say there are close to 20 victims, the Long Beach Police say they are aware of only about half the number of incidents.
They want people to report all acts of vandalism, Mills reported.
Police also said they were stepping up patrols in the area.
