Someone with misplaced anger has a grudge against old cars

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On Sunday afternoon, during the Seahawks game, our 1991 Jeep had both passenger side tires slashed/stabbed/punctured in Uptown while it was parked at Lawrence and Polk. Jacob, the nice All City tow truck driver, arrived quickly, near sunset on a Sunday, swapped one tire with the doughnut tire, inflated the doughnut (it hadn't ever been out of the Jeep in its 26 years of service) and towed us to Les Schwab. The tow truck driver said he had another car to deal with after us, in the Safeway parking lot. I filed a report with an equally nice police officer, just in case there were other similar incidents they might be tracking.

There was a nice young fellow at Les Schwab, working on vehicles on a Sunday evening. He said, well, yes, they'd seen a few other cars with slashed tires recently.

The Jeep was settled in as the only car in the lot, waiting for Monday morning service. We returned later in the evening to retrieve documents from the glove box and found two more cars next to the Jeep: an elderly Corolla and an equally elderly Camry, each with three tires slashed. The tow truck driver had a busy evening.

This morning, the spouse met the person who owns the Corolla while waiting for our new tires to be mounted. The Corolla's tires were slashed in the boatyard.

All this brings up a few questions:

What sort of malicious mischief-maker focuses on elderly cars? There were numerous newer, more expensive vehicles around our Jeep, untouched. The Corolla from the boat yard was at least as well-worn as the Jeep. In our case, we had a second car to turn to. The fellow in the boatyard was a business man with other resources. How many old cars have been targeted that are in one-car families, where a parent cannot get to work and cannot conjure up the money for new tires overnight?

To deal with the minor problem this vandalism caused us, we met and worked with very nice people, the kind of folks this town is filled with: the All City and Les Schwab employees; a member of our police department; our State Farm agent. Most people here work to make other people's lives better. But not you, Mr./Ms. Tire Slasher. I'd like to know what your purpose is. You can't be protesting class inequities if you're slashing tires on weathered, nondescript cars that are nearly three decades old instead of all the shiny BMWs, Mercedes, and occasional Jaguars around town. Our Jeep had no political bumper stickers or anything else that might attract an angry response. So, what's your goal? How does ruining tires on old cars help you with your anger management? And how many people have you impacted that didn't have the resources to be able to consider this a minor annoyance?

Here's a suggestion, assuming Mr./Ms. Tire Slasher reads: there are many constructive ways to burn off that anger. Try showing up for a workparty and pulling invasives in one of our city, county or state parks. Scot's broom, blackberry and English ivy are formidable opponents for your anger. Volunteer for Habitat and learn to use tools constructively to build houses for people less fortunate than you are. Swing a hammer properly for a few hours and you'll have a lot less energy to misdirect. Find out how good it feels to do something positive. Or you might find yourself as a part of the sheriff's work crews from the jail if you don't sort out your anger and leave it for the authorities to do it for you on a much less voluntary basis. Your choice.

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