Cape Cod town mysteriously vandalized with nearly 500 point-up nails embedded on roads: police
At least 478 nails were recovered spread across four Falmouth roads early Friday, according to the Falmouth Police Department.
Photos shared by the department showed dozens of nails with their heads pressed deliberately into tar patches across the roads and points poised skyward — ready to impale the tires of cars passing by.
The spikes were found around 2 a.m. by an officer on patrol, who found even more littered across nearby sidewalks and spread up driveways — and even propped beneath the tires of parked cars.
“I’ve heard of mailboxes getting smashed, but never nails being left on the road,” neighbor Kathy Hartford told NBC 10 Boston.
Hartford was woken at 2:30 a.m. by a knock on the door by police, who said her driveway had been found peppered with nails.
“They told me they saw nails in my driveway and up the street, and surrounding my car,” she added.
Police rushed remove the nails and sweep them up, while neighbor Rick Murphy pitched in with a large magnet to scour the grass near the roadway for any that were missed.
“I dragged it back and forth on a road down there,” Murphy said. “It could have created an awful accident.”
“You know, a blowout, car goes off the road, hits a tree or a pole.”
Cops are still working to find the culprit behind the incident, but locals were quick to offer ideas.
“My first suspect would be the local tire salesman,” one man wrote on the Falmouth Police Department’s Facebook page.
“Kids with nothing better to do,” another theorized.
Police are asking the public for any information or home security footage that might lead them to a culprit.
https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/us-news/hundreds-of-nails-found-embedded-point-up-across-cape-cod-roads-police/
Heartless thugs have hidden homemade spikes (pictured) around a running trail to injure innocent runners
A jogger found one of the spikes in the Lake Macquarie State Conservation Park at Bolton Point
At left, a Roman caltrop (pictured) – a metal device designed to always have a spike pointing upwards that's been called the 'Roman landmine'.
WW1 russian caltrops to stop infantry and light cavalry charges ( left ) and Ancient Roman caltrop to stop cavalry charges (right) (Picture source OSINT+ Royal Engineers Museum, Kent )
Ukrainian mass-produced Caltrops (Picture source OSINT )
Roman Caltrop, designed to stick in horses hooves
Russian Caltrops, used during the Crimean War, 1854
