Residents in Austin neighborhood waking up to slashed tires for months

Residents in the Heritage Hills neighborhood are frustrated after waking up to slashed tires for months. 

Courtney Graham has lived in the neighborhood for around eight years and says the area has had its spikes in crime, but it’s been nothing like this. "It’s to the point now where one neighbor bought an assault rifle, one said he wanted to sleep in his car to try and catch the perpetrator,” she said. 

Graham said she's even taken to parking in her backyard.

"Frankly we’re parking in our backyard," she said. 

As president of the neighborhood association, Graham said she knows this is against code, but said they've already been out thousands of dollars in replacing their tires. "To worry about am I going to get a code violation, we’ve already replaced 7 tires, so we just can't keep doing it,” she said.

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In a poll she created on NextDoor, out of 23 votes 35 percent of people responded they had at least one flat in the last month. Graham said Sunday morning, there were at least 9 flat tires on her street alone. 

"There are so many things going on right now, it’s outrageous," she said. "I need to be able to get my baby to her doctor appointments and get to work to support my family, and I just ask that they stop.”

Austin police say that residents can get extra patrols on their street, they would just need to go through their APD District Representative. They said then, the District Rep. will create a "directed patrol" that gets sent over to patrol officers so they can proactively deter the crime in question.

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