Is it kids having fun or someone with an axe to grind?
A Mudjimba resident believes someone is deliberately setting roof screws to puncture motorists’ tyres.
A handful of roof screws neatly screwed through pieces of corrugated cardboard to weigh down the heads so they stand upright support his view.
The screws were collected from Coolibah Street on May 28 after two vehicles heading to households in side streets picked up similar screws in their tyres.
Josh, who asked that his surname not be used, said the puncture problem had been happening for at least two months.
“Three times it’s happened to us. My daughter’s car got done in April and my wife’s car got done on the same night, and then we had another one on the 28th,” he said.
“My daughter was coming home and I heard something in her tyre when she pulled into the driveway.
“I went back to where she thought she might have heard something and there was a couple of local guys who had seen the screws and got them up off the road.
“One of them lives around the corner and I know his family. One of them had picked one up on their way home.”
Josh believes the screws are being set on Coolibah Street between Sassifras and Currawong streets, possibly in the early evening.
A lawn and garden contractor who regularly drives along Coolibah Street said he’d had four punctures. He said he went to a tyre repairer after a trailer tyre got a flat and the repairer found another puncture in another trailer tyre and two on his vehicle.
A resident of Pandanus Street, which also joins Coolibah Street, said she had recently had a flat but was not sure of the cause.
“It seems there’s been quite a few of them that have happened and haven’t been reported,” Josh said.
“Initially, people thought they were getting flats because a builder had dropped some cases of screws or whatever, but the screws through the cardboard actually look deliberate.
“They haven’t just pushed them through the cardboard. They’ve screwed the little bit of cardboard that hold them upright.”
Josh, who has lived in Mudjimba for 14 years, said it was “a good area” and he could not understand why someone would deliberately try to puncture people’s tyres.
“I don’t know if it’s kids being silly or something else going on,” he said.
He said the matter had been reported to police, who told him they would step up patrols.
A police spokesperson said it was unusual for someone to deliberately leave nails or screws on the road.
“It’s not something we come across very often,” he said.
Josh suggested motorists driving in the area check their tyres before driving off and be careful on local roads.
“I’ve said to my wife and daughter, if they are driving in here at night, go very slow and put your lights on high beam to make sure there isn’t anything on the road as you come up,” he said.
Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our FREE daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email at the bottom of this article.
