LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — Someone apparently has been scattering nails and screws across the roads in part of the Raintree Lake subdivision last weekend in Lee's Summit, causing havoc for unsuspecting motorists.
"I’ve got a nail that’s continuing to get embedded in my tire," Lee's Summit resident Jason Duewel said.
Unfortunately for Duewel, it wasn't the first time this week. He also had a nail in his tire Sunday, which he already got fixed.
His mother, Wendy, also got a nail in her tire on Wednesday.
"It’s super frustrating," she said. "Hundreds, it’s hundreds of cars this has happened to."
This Lee's Summit mother and son said the nails and screws were cleaned off the road only to reappear on the roads, including Southwest Ward Road.
"There have been accounts from people in the neighborhood that they go out, pick up screws and then there's more screws laying in the same spot when they wake up in the morning," Jason said.
According to Lee's Summit police, the city sent a street sweeper truck through the area to assist in clearing the roads of debris.
Nobody seems to know who is doing it or why.
"If this is being done on purpose, hopefully they can get caught and we can get it taken care of," Wendy said.
Accounts from a Raintree Lake Facebook page claim they've identified hundreds of victims who've needed tire repairs recently, which led the Lee's Summit Police Department to assign a detective to investigate.
"People are furious," Wendy said. "It's costing a lot of money."
Several auto shops in the Lee's Summit area said they have been inundated with people needed tires fixed when contacted by 41 Action News.
"I've been here three years," Spencer Stevens, service adviser at the Midwest Auto Clinic in the Goodyear store in Lee's Summit, said. "This is the busiest we've been ever that I can remember."
Most people with tire problems lately live in or visited Raintree Lake.
"Just visiting family or visiting friends that just happened to be there that day and that happened, so it's definitely been a big question mark around here," Stevens said.
It's a mystery residents want solved to feel safe again
"This has to stop," Jason said, "for the sake of the neighborhood and for the sake of everyone."
