This shaky surveillance video shows an unidentified man brazenly slashing the tires of three NYPD Parking Enforcement cars in broad daylight on Monday in Parkchester. (It was either very windy out, or the surveillance cam was afraid it would be slashed next, because it can't stop trembling!) The cars were parked outside a Bronx parking enforcement headquarters near the Westchester Square shopping district, were merchants say parking ticket blitzes are driving away their shoppers.
'It's killing us,' says Marco Rossetti, co-owner of Frank and Joe's Deli in Westchester Square. He tells the Daily News, 'It's wrong, but I can understand his frustration. Truthfully, we're not given a chance. Their office is located directly above us. The agents come down 10, 15 at a time, stand in front of my store. People that pull over don't get a second to stop.' And John Bonizio, president of the Association of the Merchants and Business Professionals of Westchester Square, says, 'I'm not surprised that frustration would run that high, and that people would attempt to lash back out at enforcement in an improper manner.'
Of course, it's unclear whether the perp in this instance was retaliating over parking tickets, but this isn't the first time the vehicles have been targeted. About a year ago, vandals started breaking windshields of NYPD. Parking Enforcement cars parked in the area. Police are currently looking for a black man of medium build who sped away in a gray mini van, presumably with a stack of unpaid parking tickets spilling out of his glove box.
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