Local

Driver's tires slashed, other driver hit over mall parking spots

DUNWOODY, Ga. — Police are investigating two parking lot disputes outside a local mall. One victim's car tires were slashed and another was actually hit by a car. Both incidents happened outside Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody this weekend.

Channel 2's Ashley Swann spoke with one of the victims Saturday night who didn't want to be identified. The 22-year-old woman says she and another driver both pulled up to a spot outside the mall around the same time Friday afternoon. She thought the space was hers, so she pulled into it. But when she returned to her car after shopping, three of her tires had been slashed.

"I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, but I got there first," the woman told Swann. "I felt like it was my parking spot. The other car that was waiting, pretty much blocked my car, was honking and just causing a major scene."

The woman says she quickly walked around the front of her car and into the mall to avoid confrontation - never guessing she would return an hour later to find her SUV tilted with three slashed and flat tires.

"They only left one inflated," she said. "It was a disaster."

Less than 24 hours later, Dunwoody police say a man they describe as elderly was attempting to save a spot in the same parking lot for his wife when another driver tried to take it. When the man didn't move, the driver hit him with her car and left.

"I hope he's OK," the other victim told Swann. "I can't believe somebody would hit somebody."

Saturday's victim wasn't seriously injured and the woman she's already replaced her tires. But she remains dumbfounded by both incidents and said her days of trying to get a good parking spot are over.

"I just don't understand why people would go through so much to harm others over something as petty as a parking spot," she said. "I'm not even going to try to battle anybody over a parking spot. If they look like they want it, you can have it. It's not worth having my tires slashed or being in danger, for that matter."

Dunwoody police tell Channel 2 Action News they're using witness accounts and potential surveillance footage to find both of the drivers involved in these violent disputes.