The Ice Pick Bandit -- the by now well-known and quite brazen vandal, perhaps even a group of vandals who go around in the wee hours of the night attacking the tires of trucks parked on exit ramps -- has struck again in South Georgia and North Florida, this time two nights in a row.
Since we began reporting on these incidents, which all seem to follow an eerily similar pattern, at least a dozen reader reports of vandalism have come in. The reports range in geographic area from as far as northwest as Kentucky to southern Georgia and northern Florida. (If this has happened to you or someone you know, please get in touch with [email protected] with police reports, photos, and whatever records you can muster to help the search.)
For now, here's the latest from Florida Highway Patrol Troop B Public Affairs Officer and Lieutenant P.V. Riordan:
"We have had two additional incidents -- one on the 23rd and one on the 24th, both in Columbia County on I -10, at the U.S. 41 exit and at the U.S. 441 exit," he wrote. "We do not know if an ice pick is being used -- but it is something similar in nature that pierces the tire with a very small hole."
As previously reported, the tiny holes present a massively annoying and costly safety challenge, as the small holes don't flatten the tire all at once and they can be nearly impossible to find.
In one incident in Columbia County, driver Dan Hoot reported his brake lines and airbags stabbed up too.
"Attempted murder," one commenter suggested about the vandalism to the brake lines.
