[media-credit name=’Photo courtesy Carolyn Smith’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Mifflin Street residents woke up to an unpleasant surprise Saturday morning when it was discovered the tires of vehicles parked in lots on the 400 block of the street were slashed, forcing car owners to cover the cost of two replacement tires.

University of Wisconsin senior Laura Thompson, who lives at 423 Mifflin Street, parks her car in a small lot behind her building. Thompson said she noticed about 12 cars in the lot each had two slashed tires Saturday.

“I was on my way to work so I had to call in and couldn’t go to work,” Thompson said, adding she spent approximately $130 to replace the flat tires Saturday afternoon. “It was a little bit annoying.”

Thompson said her roommate and other residents who live above and below their Mifflin Street apartment also had their tires slashed. According to Thompson, there was about an inch-long slit in the tires.

Landlord Bob Hickman, an independent owner of several buildings on Mifflin Street, said he thought it looked like multiple cars had two flat tires when he went to his buildings to do some work at about 10:30 a.m.

“By this time, some of these tenants started coming out,” Hickman said. “From what I heard, it was my parking lot and … there were tires slashed at least one or two lots next to me. Someone from the police department said there were other tires slashed down the block.”

Hickman said there is no protection against vandalism for residents who park their cars in his lots although many car owners have their own insurance to cover incidents such as slashed tires.

UW junior Jessie Kosinski lives at 401 Mifflin Street and parks her car across the street from her house, but she said luckily her tires were not slashed.

“That’s really mean,” Kosinski said. “I’m glad my car was OK and my tires were not flat.”

According to Lt. Carl Strasburg of the Madison Police Department, there are usually not many tire-slashing incidents around campus, but there are no trends isolating the vandalism to a certain area of the city.

“It’s something that does happen anywhere, anytime,” Strasburg said. “It’s one of those acts of vandalism that happens on a sporadic basis.”

Hickman said there have been no tire-slashing incidents on his properties recently, although there are times when cars in the lots are vandalized, for example when someone threw a rock through the back window of his truck.

“Stuff goes on like that periodically, but nothing like this though,” Hickman said. “It’s really an unfortunate situation because a lot of people were inconvenienced. Nobody knows who did it.”

Strasburg said a city ordinance damage to property fine is $412.

Thompson said she was a “little nervous” leaving her car in the lot again after replacing her tires.

“I think it’s kind of a random thing. I really don’t think it will happen again,” Thompson said.