Arkansas City police now have suspects in the 39 cases of tire slashing that occurred last weekend, Chief Sean Wallace said. The suspects are teenagers.
The total damage has been estimated at $7,600. The number of tires damaged on any one vehicle varied but in some cases all four tires were slashed. The damage occurred Friday night or early Saturday morning on B, C and D Streets from the 1300 block South to the 1400 block North.
Wallace said he felt sorry for the victims who walked out their doors expecting to go to work only to find their vehicles had been vandalized. While many had insurance, they also had deductibles and none of the victims reached their deductibles. That means they’ll have to replace the tires themselves without any help from their insurance companies.
“These people need to be forced to repay the victims,” Wallace said. “They need to be held accountable.”
Teens involved in past vandalism have said they committed the crimes because they were bored.
“It’s a parental problem,” Wallace said. “The lack of ability to use time wisely – they haven’t been taught how to do that.”
There were a lot of other young people in Ark City last weekend who didn’t go out and create problems. “There were plenty of kids who found something else to do,” he said.
Investigators have put in a lot of time on the case going house to house to determine if anyone in the areas where the vandalism occurred saw anything suspicious.
Anyone who has information that might be helpful is asked to call the Ark City police department at 441-4444 or Crime Stoppers at 221-7777 or 442-7777.
