WHITE CITY — A White City man was arrested Tuesday after police say he had been placing homemade spike strips around his neighborhood, damaging the tires of nearly a dozen vehicles, including a police patrol car.
Tristan Thomas Fish, 47, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of 10 counts of criminal mischief and 10 counts of disorderly conduct.
Starting July 7, Unified police began receiving calls from motorists "getting flat tires and finding homemade tire deflation devices in their tires or on the roadway. In all, there were 10 victims, including one Unified police officer who sustained damage to their vehicle," according to a police booking affidavit.
Two victims had to replace multiple tires. Most of the damage occurred in the area of 10300 South and 800 East.
Unified police detectives collected several of the tire deflating devices and were able to collect fingerprints off of them, the affidavit states. After placing those prints into a police database, Fisher came up as a possible culprit.
"Officers conducted follow-up (investigation) at the residence of Tristan where he was ultimately taken into custody and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail," according to the affidavit.
A motive for the vandalism was still being investigated Wednesday, and police are asking anyone who recently had their tires flattened by a homemade device in the same area to contact them at 801-840-4000.
