Bend parking garage tires slashed; transient jailed

Several car owners arrived at their cars at the downtown Bend parking garage Wednesday afternoon, only to find that one or more of their car tires had been slashed.

“I was working in the building and I was coming to move my car and I came to my tire being popped,” said Blake Terry, one of the car owners.

According to police, employees from the Oxford Hotel called to report a man was sleeping in the stairwell with a knife in his hand. Employees then asked him to leave and watched him walk away. Soon after, around 12 or more cars were found with slashed tires.

“I came walking up and a bunch of people were standing around and they said, ‘Ioh, you have a flat tire?’ and I said, ‘Oh, I hope not’, but sure enough, we did,” said car owner Myles Eastman.

A majority of the cars that had slashed tires were found on the third level of the city-owned parking garage.

“It looks like he came out around the elevator and went on both tires on each side of the cars all the way around and then continued down,” said car owner Christina Powell.

Based on the description by an Oxford employee, police found 38-year old Bend transient, Zachary Glenn Mathews, on Greenwood Avenue, where he was then arrested.

Most car owners were left feeling frustrated.

“I was upset and I wasn’t very happy about it,” Terry said. “I was looking forward to going to a barbeque.”

But, some people were staying positive.

“The sun will come up, and it was just a tire,” Eastman said.

No one was hurt or threatened by Mathews. The investigation is still ongoing and so far he has been charged with six counts of first and second degree criminal mischief.