North County : Tire Slashings Could Be Related, Police Say

A rash of tire slashings that may be related occurred over the weekend in Cypress, Los Alamitos and Buena Park, police officials said.

Cypress police said 29 cars were vandalized early Saturday morning in residential neighborhoods on Ball Road and Valley View Street.

“It is highly unlikely that 29 different people will get the same notion to slash tires in one evening, so we are investigating this as if they are related,” Cypress Police Lt. John Schaefer said.

In neighboring Los Alamitos, police said 16 tires on six cars and two mobile homes on Kings Street, Humbolt Street and Cerritos Avenue, which are within several blocks of each other, were also pierced early Sunday morning.

“The same method seems to have been used in Cypress, making it likely that they are connected,” Los Alamitos Police Sgt. Bill Barrett said. “This is sheer meanness, vandalizing cars. All the victims seem to have been chosen randomly. Their cars were just there, and they were picked to be slashed.”

Police investigators said they have no leads in either city.

In Buena Park, two windshields were broken and one tire was slashed over the weekend, Buena Park Police Sgt. Terry Branum said. However, there was no clear indication that the three incidents are related to each other or to the vandalism in Cypress and Los Alamitos, Branum said.

The tire-slashing occurred in the 6000 block of San Bernardo Circle early Friday morning, while the windshields were broken Saturday night in the 8000 block of Dale Street and the 8400 block of Holder Street.