A 56-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested for tossing construction screws on a busy roadway for several weeks, causing dozens of flat tires.
Cops in Freetown, Mass., believe Peter Vasconcellos, who was busted Tuesday for operating an uninsured vehicle with a revoked license and registration, may be responsible for the damages, according to CBS News in Boston.
When police encountered Vasconcellos near the half-mile stretch of South Main Street where the incidents were reported, they reportedly found a stash of screws in his vehicle matching the ones being pulled out of tires in recent weeks.
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“People are mad,” according to Jamie Levasseur, who told CBS the tire repair shop where he works was fixing roughly 50 tires a week damaged by screws.
The Freetown Highway Department found itself using magnets to clean South Main Street of construction screws.
“I’ve got a five-gallon bucket at the shop that is probably half full,” Freetown highway surveyor Charles Macomber told Rhode Island news station WPRI.
Macomber said he was making sweeps every couple hours to pick up loose screws before Vasconcellos was apprehended. Each pass netted dozens of findings. The suspect reportedly lives near where the screws were being found.