Police Investigating After Tires Slashed On 40 Cars In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are on the hunt for two suspects after about 40 car owners woke up to find their tires slashed in Brooklyn.
Police said cars were targeted in the vicinity of Quentin Road to Avenue S and East 17th Street to Bedford Avenue between midnight and 2 a.m. Sunday.
"I go down and I see both my tires are slashed and then his girlfriend came out and said 'No, the whole block,'" one victim, who didn't want to be identified, told 1010 WINS' Roger Stern.
Victims are now left with little choice but to replace the tires, costing them hundreds of dollars, CBS2's Scott Rapoport reported.
"Probably $350 to $400 dollars," one victim said.
Chaby Orfali had two of his tires cut. He had to have his car hauled away on a flatbed.
"I mean, you feel violated," he said. "We can't even drive it. It makes it impossible to put on a donut and take it to the shop."
Brooklyn City Councilman David Greenfield said he believes there actually may be dozens more cases that have not been reported.
Greenfield is now offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
"The idea that you should wake up in the morning and you didn't do anything to anyone, and someone just literally randomly slashes tires block by block by block of dozens of Brooklynites, that's just wrong, and that's just unacceptable, and that's not what New York is all about," Greenfield told 1010 WINS.
Greenfield said the area in which the crime occurred is a predominantly Jewish community.
"I'm certainly hoping that it's not a bias crime, but at the same time I'm a little bit concerned," the councilman said.
Police said they're not currently investigating the incident as a bias crime.
Police are also reviewing surveillance video from the area.
"The video just shows somebody calmly walking down the street puncturing tire after tire after tire without regard to the community or the welfare of the people," Greenfield said. "And I think that's obviously very frustrating."
Click on the video player above to watch the surveillance video released by police.
It remains unclear if the incident is related to another act of vandalism discovered early Saturday morning in which two dozen cars parked on the street in Manhattan's Hamilton Heights had their windows smashed in.
Police described the suspects as one white male and one white female. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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