Tires slashed on 12 vehicles in Squirrel Hill

PITTSBURGH — Several people in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood spent a large part of their day dealing with slashed and flattened car tires.

Channel 11 News counted at least seven damaged cars along Douglas Street alone, including Paul Rosenblatt’s. He woke up Monday morning to find his wife’s tire slit open.

“Sort of surprised and sad that somebody would think to do something like that,” Rosenblatt said. “It seems sort of pointless. It’s just pointless vandalism.”

Rosenblatt said he immediately called the police. Then he put hand-written notes on the vandalized cars warning his neighbors. The sign read, “Please call 911 and report that your tires were slashed. There were 12 cars affected.”

“I was concerned because this had never happened here before like this,” said Eli Rothman, who’s lived on Douglas Street for 37 years.

Rothman was lucky. He said his car was parked on the other side of the street. None of those cars were touched.

“I was grateful, but I was unhappy for the people that this happened to because it’s an expense and we don’t know who did it,” Rothman said. “On the one hand, I’m glad it’s not a person. It’s only property.”

But the vandalism didn’t stop on Douglas Street. Neighbors told Channel 11 News reporter Antoinette DelBel there were also gashes in car tires on nearby Shady Avenue and Beechwood Boulevard.

“I hope they find the people that did it,” Rosenblatt said.

Kendall Towing’s owner Nick Milanovich told Channel 11 they had more service calls than normal Monday. Milanovich said their road service technicians had to either tow or change out a tire for at least 12 cars in the area.

“I just hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else in the city,” Rothman said. “The person or people involved, they should get the help they need so they don’t do these things again.”

Channel 11 reached out to Pittsburgh police but has not yet heard back.

Rosenblatt said an officer came out to the neighborhood Monday morning and told him he’d investigate the crime.

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