More than 50 vehicles' tires slashed in West Philly
A tire slasher ripped through three West Philadelphia blocks sometime overnight Sunday or early Monday morning, vandalizing more than 50 vehicles, police said.
The unknown culprit slashed tires of 48 vehicles parked on the 4900 through 5100 blocks of Hazel Avenue and tires of another eight vehicles on the nearby 5800 block of Chancellor Street, police said.
Detectives were still processing the large scene of the crimes at 3 p.m. Monday and gathering surveillance video from residents on those blocks, police said. No suspects were identified yet.
The city's first large tire slashing incident of 2013 comes in the aftermath of several incidents in March and April 2012 and then again in September that left some neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia seething when vandals struck numerous vehicles.
A Holmesburg man, David Toledo, 44, was eventually charged with allegedly slashing 55 tires in Mayfair during the spring spree. Another outbreak of the vandalism in Port Richmond and Lawncrest happened in September.
Contact Brian X. McCrone at 215-854-2267 or bmccrone@philly.com. Follow @brianxmccrone on Twitter.
