Serial Tyre Damager Faces 39 Criminal Charges

Occasionally the tabloid aficionado within struggles to escape, and with it looms the threat of sensationalism spilling onto the staid and respectable pages of Tyres & Accessories. Fortunately this beast can be mastered and controlled – otherwise readers would now find the headline “Tyre Hater’s Three-Year Rampage Finally Deflated” staring back at them. It’s a good thing this hasn’t occurred.

Whether or not the 60-year old New York State man actually hated tyres is a question that remains unanswered, and it is debatable whether his activities constitute a rampage. What is fact, however, is that the man, named as Michael Delisio, has been harbouring various grievances against a range of neighbours since 2006, and venting his negative emotions by booby-trapping their driveways with tyre bursting nails. According to New York’s Journal News, four people have made more than 40 complaints about the man’s behaviour over the last two years.

In an attempt to draw Delisio’s tyre bursting activities to a permanent close, police set up video surveillance equipment near the homes of his known victims. Eventually, an officer witnessed evidence of him throwing nails onto the driveways of two people, and Delisio was arrested.

Delisio has been charged with 39 counts each of second-degree harassment, misdemeanour third-degree criminal tampering and fourth-degree criminal mischief, reported the Journal News. Police, however, are yet to uncover a motive for the man’s actions. “It appears he was angry about something because he kept it up for two years,” Stony Point Lt. Brian Moore told the Journal News. “He had some type of connection with each of the victims.”

Delisio is due in court on February 5. In the meantime, the paper reported that protection orders have been issued for at least two of the victims.