An Ogden man suspected of spiking his neighbors’ tires because he thought they were using “too much water” during the ongoing drought has been charged with a second-degree felony of causing a catastrophe.
Throughout the summer, Ogden police officers received dozens of reports of people’s tires being popped by someone leaving caltrop spikes in driveways and on the road in the area of 25th Street near Jaycee Park, charging documents state.
At least 18 people had their tires spiked, and two local tire shops — which reported repairing several tires — said the spikes caused about $4,300 total in damage, according to the documents. One person told police that they had collected a total of nine spikes on their property from August to September.
According to court records, investigators obtained surveillance footage of a man dropping spikes in a driveway while wearing a fedora and walking a dog.
Officers identified the man and found a dog at his residence that matched the one in the footage. The man initially denied knowing anything about the spikes, but when confronted with the footage, the 37-year-old said “it looks like my dog,” the charging documents state.
During a search warrant, investigators learned that the man had purchased 170 caltrop spikes through his Amazon account. There were 42 spikes located in the man’s home, and officers also found shoes and a fedora that matched the ones seen in the surveillance video.
The man told detectives that he had dropped the spikes because he felt “people were using too much water when we were all in a drought,” the filings state.
He informed police that he had marijuana, and officers located a mason jar filled with 30 grams of marijuana and a pipe in his home.
The man was issued a summons to appear in Weber County’s 2nd District Court on Dec. 8 and also faces two misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, court records state.
