The Ice Pick Bandit, or some kind of copycat, has struck multiple times along I-30 in Texas, this time hitting several trucks parked in an actual truck stop in a way that's baffling and concerning local authorities.
"We're one of many places" along I-30 targeted by the vandal, Hooks, Texas, Police Chief Johnny Millwood said, noting two separate occasions so far with "multiple trucks" attacked.
For those unfamiliar, the Ice Pick Bandit is a vandal, or group of vandals, that to date has mostly targeted trucks parked on on- or off-ramps up and down I-75 in southern Georgia and northern Florida.
The vandal gets its name from the small poking tool, perhaps an ice pick, used to stab up the sidewalls of truck tires. Often enough, the Ice Pick Bandit will poke holes in all 18 tires, at least once even tires on the vehicle the rig was hauling.
Early reports from the Ice Pick Bandit only included damage to tires, but as time went on, the perpetrator has taken to puncturing airbags and cutting airlines. With more than a dozen known attacks, each costing thousands in repairs, more questions than answers surround the bandit.
Though Florida Highway Patrol has released photos of a suspect and collected reports since June 2023, why would anyone attack trucks like this? Often, the driver is sleeping in the cab when the attacks happen, and the attacks seem always to happen in the dead of night.
"When it first happened here, we were thinking it was some knucklehead kids," said Millwood. "When it happened the second time and in a couple other jurisdictions," Millwood wasn't so sure anymore.
[Related: Ice Pick Bandit strikes again: Will the feds step in?]
"We had a tractor that had nine tires and an airbag 'ice picked' on August 29 in Hooks, Texas at the Sunshine Travel Plaza," said James Stephens, the safety director for American National Logistics. "When I contacted the Hooks Police Department the officer that took the call explained that we were one of several that had been vandalized in the last couple of weeks."
"Since that time I have had two of our drivers tell me they are getting word of mouth reports about continued problems," he said.
But the very nature of the attacks argues against the "knucklehead" angle. How many knucklehead kids know what a truck's airbags do? How many could locate the brake lines? How many would think to use a tiny stabbing implement to very slowly flatten the tires? How many would be smart enough to, mostly, operate outside the extensive reach of security cameras?
The new attacks in Texas only make the case more peculiar.
The recent attacks along I-30 in Texas near the Arkansas border happened while they rigs were legally parked at truck stops.
The Sunshine Travel Plaza, formerly a DK Fuel location, is an older stop, and representatives there reported the cameras being "offline."
"Granted this truck stop is right by an exit ramp," said Millwood. When the other counties got hit, "all theirs were just within a few hundred yards of the interstate." Millwood pointed out that there are some brand-new truck stops in the area, like a nearby Love's, but the bandit passed them over.
"From where we’re at there is probably 10 nice truck stops within 13 miles, and they picked the worse one, and they pick that one each time," said Millwood. "If you’ve got a truck stop that’s 5 years old or newer, it's gonna have video. ... It’s like they know where there may not be video."
Perhaps the most odd detail of the attacks remains the bandit's strange determination. In the past, Overdrive has reported one instance in which the bandit attacked a truck and then targeted it once again while it was parked in a tire shop's lot with new rubber.
"I've been in law enforcement 32 years," said Millwood. "Normally your crooks are fair-weather crooks. Vandals go for the target of opportunity, but the last time they did this there was a bad storm. Thunder, lightning, heavy rain... This was a parking lot where in the back it will be like gravel and mud, and they wandered out through that in heavy rain."
Overdrive shared with Millwood and other local police reports from the Florida Highway Patrol and other contacts with authorities working the Ice Pick Bandit case. Millwood wouldn't say exactly what he had in mind, but hinted at some possible leads.
If you or anyone you know have any information on these attacks, please contact [email protected]
For a timeline of the Ice Pick Bandit's attacks, excluding these most recent attacks in Texas, read here.
[Related: Ice Pick Bandit: Case timeline and friendly warning]
