By Tim Binnall
Authorities in Massachusetts made a rather bizarre bust earlier this week when they arrested a man for allegedly leaving rather sizeable rocks in the middle of a road for cars to hit on multiple occasions. The very weird case reportedly began back in February when police in the town of Kingston became aware of a puzzling problem wherein boulders, which ranged in size from 15 to 50 pounds, were inexplicably appearing at the center of stretch of highway that runs through the community. In a Facebook post detailing the matter, they noted that the area "is heavily wooded and dark with no residences" nearby, which led them to conclude that "someone was maliciously placing these rocks on the road to cause damage to vehicles."
The sinister scheme appeared to be successful, police say, as several vehicles wound up worse for wear as a result of encountering the mysterious giant rocks. One such victim, Dustin Starr, shared his experience with a local TV station, recounting how he was unable to avoid the boulder in the road and, instead, " I just hit that thing, and I just went boom! Right up and launched us in the air, smacked right back down." The unfortunate motorist lamented that "it cracked my engine block, it cracked my transmission, it cracked my oil pan, so there was oil everywhere. It did a lot of damage."
Observing that it was "incredibly dangerous" for someone to be leaving large rocks in the middle of a road where there is "heavy vehicular traffic," detectives with the Kingston Police Department set about trying to catch the culprit with considerable vigor as the boulders began appearing with increased frequency at the start of the summer. However, this proved to be something of a daunting task as the random nature of the events combined with their remote location as well as other factors such as "inconsistent reporting" had cops chasing a proverbial phantom until this past Monday night when the case broke wide open thanks to some diligent police work.
Hoping to spot the ne'er-do-well at work, the department explained that a detective donned some camouflage gear and hid in the nearby woods "in the pouring rain, where he planned to remain during the overnight hours with a line of sight on the area of interest." As luck would have it, a few hours later, he saw a man stop his truck, place a rock in the middle of the road, and then drive to a residence down the street. When police visited him at the home minutes later, the suspect denied what had just occurred out on the highway, "unaware that our detective viewed the entire event from the woodline."
Citing "additional inconsistencies in the suspect's story" as well as probable cause, police arrested Cameron Currier for the strange series of incidents. The 31-year-old man was charged with a whopping 11 counts of Malicious Damage to a Motor Vehicle and an additional nine counts of attempting to commit that crime in instances wherein boulders appeared in the road but no one wound up hitting them. As for what Currier's motivation may have been, the department offered a somewhat chilling addendum to their report as they indicated that the man's house "is one of very view in the area that occupants would be able to hear the subsequent collisions and watch the emergency responses to the crashes caused by these malicious acts."