b flat

[helen99]

Wellp, this morning aekiy, who has been temporarily using Smurf in order to keep the car running and until he can get himself a better car, discovered that Smurf's left front tire, which had been fine the day before, was flat. We proceeded to put the donut on it whereupon he was able to drive off to his eye doctor appointment.

Already slightly delayed by the unexpected flat, I tried to go to work - but after driving a few feet, I realized that one of my tires was flat too. So for the second time this morning, I changed a tire. I drove to the corner gas station to see if the tire was ok - I hadn't driven on it, and didn't see any noticeable tears so I was hoping some jerk just let the air out of it. But No, when they looked at it at the gas station, they determined that the tire had been stabbed with a small knife.

Luckily rialian's car was parked in the driveway, so his tires were ok. This on top of the mushroom allergy event would have been a bit... much.

I'm thinking that next time they might be planning to stab multiple tires on each car instead of just one on each (unless they get caught and mangled first - I filed a police report so I can fantasize a bit). I'll be parking in the driveway from now on.

aekiy, the Getty station a block away from us will order a new tire for you if you leave the tire (not the car) with them. Then when the tire arrives and they're ready to put it on, it'll only take a few minutes.

Unbelievable.

Comments

[per-akh.livejournal.com]

Well that really fucking sucks. We had a rash of tire slashings in our neighborhood too--the same punks who did that also icepicked the neighbor's pool for the third or fourth time.

Good luck. And I'm terribly sorry about the mushroom allergy, we'll keep Ri in our thoughts.

~Duo

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

Ouch.. that's really horrible. We need to start setting up cameras or something..

[technobushi.livejournal.com]

You could also install trip wire around your house. Or ponji traps.

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

ehe.. I don't think we can legally install that over the sidewalk in front of the house, or across the street itself (it was the side of the car facing the street which was attacked).

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Besides, with my attention span, I'd walk right into my own trap.

We've been fantasizing about setting traps with various virulent or lethal consequences for years, involving poisons, hot pepper, acid, electricity, invisible wires that slice the victims in half. In the absense of the proper materials to construct these traps, we'd settle an intricate network of video cameras that would get the whole thing on film and prove who did it...

All to no avail. Aside from being illegal or too expensive, like I said, I'd be the first victim (mornings aren't my best). The best thing that can happen is if some cop happens to be in the vicinity and relatively invisible and catches them. They were hiding out in the creek for a while to catch drunks, so it's possible...

[technobushi.livejournal.com]

*snicker* If you decide to dig ponji traps, make sure you smear the bamboo spikes with human feces. That way, even if they do escape, the infection will kill eventually.

There is probably a way to install surveillance. The trick is knowing where and what to research. I can look around if you want.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not. With my luck I'll probably get videos of drunks urinating. They use my front fence for a rest stop occasionally, thinking nobody can see them through the foliage. However, they're perfectly visible from the house and yard. Unfortunately.

But on the bright side, maybe I'll get lucky and catch a vandal.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Each time they do something like that it costs a lot to fix it (out of already thin budgets), and then they come back and do it again. A few years back they went after mirrors. Smurf had its mirror snapped off twice before aekiy came down and took over its care and feeding, and another car I had got its mirror messed with constantly and then finally snapped.

The cops are pretty vigilant in my neighborhood of late (the number of drunks in the creek has diminished), but they can't be there all the time and I wouldn't really want them to have to be. Reporting it every time sort of gives them patterns to watch out for though, so I'm hoping they'll nose around at night a little more often and maybe catch some of them redhanded.