Serial tire slasher continues to disrupt life for section of Hyde Park

HYDE PARK, Mass. — A serial tire slasher is wreaking havoc in one Boston neighborhood. Dozens of tires have been flattened over the last three nights in Hyde Park near the Roslindale line, and neighbors are worried it's going to happen again.

Neighbors on Deforest Street have been waking up morning after morning to find tires randomly slashed. One young man replaced his first flat tire with a spare, only to wake up to two more flats the following morning.

The list of people finding their tires flattened grows by the day with the frustration expanding by the minute.

"We didn't do anything to nobody," said Yuderka De La Cruz, whose son woke up to a slashed tire on Thursday morning while her husband woke up to one on Friday.

"Now we [are] parking inside, we are afraid to leave the car for a minute in the street," she said. "It's not only me, it's the whole street."

Related: Police investigating homicide, 3 other shootings in same area of Dorchester

It's not just De La Cruz's street either. At least five others near the George Wright Golf Course are dealing with the same recurring pattern of destruction that continued into the weekend.

"It's a matter of people having no lives and retaliating on people who have to go to work first thing in the morning," said Melissa Figueroa.

The slices in each tire are smaller than a penny, but they're causing big headaches.

"It's a cost that some people may not have the money for," said Norma Padua, whose husband's tire was punctured.

A Boston Police detective spoke with neighbors, looking for surveillance in hopes of finding out who is behind the occurrences. That detective estimates there could be about 30 victims dealing with the unexpected cost of replacing tires.

Those who haven't been targeted are worrying they could be next.

"We're hoping we can figure out what's going on and have this stop," said Rachel Nenner-Payton

Neighbors believe this is happening in the overnight hours, sometime between 3 and 5 a.m. Most of the tires targeted have been facing the sidewalk.

Some say they initially didn't realize that their tire had been slashed because it had been done to only a single tire and the small size of the slice.

Cox Media Group