A man was arrested after authorities said he was caught on camera slashing the tires of multiple cars in a southwest Miami-Dade neighborhood Thursday, including a marked Homestead Police vehicle.
The incident happened in the Villas Del Campos community in the area of Southwest 112th Avenue and 244th Street.
Neighbors woke up to find more than two dozen tires slashed on 17 different vehicles.
"She was trying to back out the car to take the kids to school and the car wasn’t moving. So she checked the camera and saw someone slash, one car, two car, three car and slashed multiple tires. And then we thought it was just this house. Came home to find out it was multiple homes in our neighborhood," resident Stephanie Noisette said.
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Police later identified the suspect as 41-year-old Juan Pablo Ramos-Nieto, a resident of the neighborhood.
According to an arrest report, Ramos-Nieto walked through the neighborhood with a knife, slashing the tires and causing around $6,000 worth of damage.
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Surveillance footage from some of the homes showed the suspect going to work on the tires.
“The whole neighborhood was in a mess, everybody’s tires were slashed. The cops were here everyone was running around trying to figure out what happened,” said neighbor Rena Cote. “It was very shocking, very shocking.”
One neighbor said it was the second time Ramos-Nieto had slashed his tires, the report said.
Ramos-Nieto was arrested on 27 counts of armed criminal mischief and booked into jail. Attorney information wasn't available.