HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A Citrus Park neighborhood is on edge after residents say someone put homemade spike strips in their driveways and ruined their tires.
- Incident in Fawn Lake subdivision reported April 17
- Multiple residents' tires damaged
- Have information? Contact Hillsborough Co. Sheriff's Office
- More Hillsborough County stories
Residents in the Fawn Lake subdivision where the incidents occurred say they have no idea who would do something like this.
Kimberly Nuttal said she noticed something wasn't right when she backed out of her driveway Wednesday morning.
"I pulled out and I got like two houses down and my car started acting funny, like it had a flat," she said. "I pulled over. I looked at my tires, but they weren't flat so I kept on going."
But she said things got scary when she pulled out on the main road.
"When I pulled out into Sheldon, my car starts shaking violently," Nuttal said. "I got my light and my phone out and I looked, I saw all these nails just in my tire and this hose-type thing connected to it. So I tried to take off the hose and I got two of the nails out and two nails were still in the tire, but they were embedded in the tire."
Spikes were in the street
Nuttal said when she finally got to the tire shop she spotted her neighbor, Craig Parchuke, who had a similar story. He said he saw those same spike strips in the tires of his car and his wife's car.
"The nail was strategically placed in my tire where I couldn't get it patched, unfortunately," said Parchuke. "Those devices were set down for nothing but harm. There was nothing good about that thing."
Parchuke said the spikes were in the street and in driveways on White Elk Loop where they live.
"You feel like you¹re being targeted for something," he said. "Which is a bad feeling and it was a bad feeling all day yesterday until I spoke with the sheriffs later on in the evening."
He said other neighbors ran over the homemade nail-filled hose and had to fork over hundreds of dollars in repairs, too, but they say it could've been worse.
"We have a lot of people that jog and run through here in the morning when I leave for work, and if somebody were to happen to step on one of those it would've practically went straight through their foot, so we're thankful for that," Parchuke said.
Most of the people who live on that street have cameras and they're handing the footage over to investigators. The victims say when the person is found they will press charges and they want their money back.
If you have any information in this case or if you were a victim, contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.