Two arrested following reports of slashed vehicle tires across Whatcom County
Bellingham police have arrested two men suspected of slashing tires on more than a dozen vehicles across the city.
Officers responded to a burglary and vandalism call around 6:22 a.m. March 4 in the 2600 block of Hampton Place. A resident in the area told police he received an emergency alert from a security camera. When he went to check his property he discovered a garage window had been broken and all four tires were slashed on two vehicles, Lt. Claudia Murphy of the Bellingham Police Department told The Herald.
A police investigation of the neighborhood revealed eight vehicles with at least one tire slashed in the area of Hampton Place and Lyle Street.
At 7:36 a.m. the same day, officers responded to another call of vandalism in the 4100 block of Aurora Loop to investigate another set of slashed tires on nine other vehicles, according to Murphy.
One witness told police they saw the suspects — two males — outside their residence around 5 a.m. pulling on the car door handles of a neighbor’s vehicle. The two men ran away and got into a dark Subaru when the witness yelled at them, Murphy said. A similar dark Subaru is visible on security footage provided by a neighbor from Hampton Place, according to Murphy.
A neighbor in Aurora Loop told police their surveillance camera recorded two men puncturing the tires of a vehicle before damaging the camera with a screwdriver.
The men are suspected of being responsible for $15,150 in damages in Bellingham, according to Murphy.
Around 8:12 a.m., deputies with the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) contacted two men matching the suspects’ descriptions near Britton Road and Hillsdale Road. The men were identified as the two suspects from the Lyle Street vandalism, according to Murphy.
The two men are also suspected of slashing the tires, breaking the windows and stealing items from a vehicle in the 3700 block Greenville Place, according to Deb Slater with WCSO. They also allegedly damaged two more vehicles in the 1700 block of Academy Road and four vehicles in the 3100 block of Y Road for a total of $16,000 in damages and $960 in theft, Slater said.
Both men were arrested on suspicion of two counts of first-degree malicious mischief, two counts of second-degree malicious mischief, second-degree burglary and second-degree vehicle prowl, all felonies. Second-degree vehicle prowl typically is a gross misdemeanor unless it is a third conviction, in which case it’s another class C felony.
The suspects had yet to be formally charged as of Friday morning.
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