Tires slashed on cars in Morningside Heights

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS (WABC) -- An investigation is underway after about a dozen car owners found their tires slashed Wednesday morning in Morningside Heights.

You could hear the desperation in Gabriel Ikpia's voice.

"I have somewhere to go. I just got off from work. I come back here now. Unfortunately my tire is down...and I don't know why," he said.

The West Hempstead resident is just one victim of more than a dozen car owners who had their tires slashed early Wednesday morning on Amsterdam Avenue.

Miosotis Rivera is another victim, but she has to replace four tires on her Honda pilot.

"I took my daughter to school and then was that I saw all the cars - the same issue. 'What ran through your mind?' Nothing. I was like, what's going on but I saw it wasn't only my car, it was all the cars with the same situation," said Rivera.

There are numerous surveillance cameras outside the apartment buildings on 109th Street and the businesses on Amsterdam Avenue, cameras that perhaps caught the tire slasher in action.

Police will certainly review the footage as they investigate the seven complaints they've received so far.

But people we talked to said there are plenty more victims.

Edwin Guerrero is one of them.

"They must have stabbed it. And to get into that tire is really hard, so, they must have took their time, so. 'It took effort.' Yeah, yeah," said Guerrero.

He says replacing the slashed tire on his BMW will set him back $450, a major financial setback for him and many of his neighbors who also paid to have their cars towed away.