Vandals targeted 20 Fort Dodge vehicles by slashing their tires, and police want to find out who did it.
The damage was discovered Wednesday morning by a Fort Dodge police officer on routine patrol, Assistant Police Chief Kevin Doty said.
"One of our cruisers noticed a couple of cars that had their tires slashed," he said. "The officer looked in the area to see if there were more cars targeted. Then people coming out of their homes going to work discovered their tires were flattened."
In all, owners reported 20 vehicles had tires slashed. Doty said some of the cars had only one tire slashed, and others had multiple flattened tires.
"All of the cars were on the street," Doty said. "Some of the tires were on the street side, and others were on the curb side."
The vandalism happened in a roughly 10-block area between Second Avenue South and 12th Avenue South, and South 17th Street and South 27th Street. Investigators believe the crime happened either late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
Police also received reports of tires being damaged in other parts of town, and are investigating whether or not the same suspect or suspects are involved. Police don't know the dollar amount of damage caused, but Doty estimated it would be costly.
"Even if you can replace the tire for $100, that's still going to be a pinch on the owner," he said.
The police are hoping the case will be solved quickly.
"It's a pretty senseless crime," Doty said. "It's causing these people so much of an inconvenience."
Doty said the police are still following up on leads.
"If anybody saw something that was out of place, or maybe even heard someone talking about it, we want them to contact us," he said.