A man who for months has been placing "incredibly dangerous" large rocks in the middle of a rural road in Kingston, Massachusetts, damaging at least 11 vehicles, was arrested Monday night after an officer staked out the road in the rain, police said.
Cameron Currier is accused of leaving rocks that weigh between 15 and 50 lbs. on Pembroke Street near Reed Street, where he lives. The 31-year-old was due in Plymouth District Court Tuesday morning to face 11 counts of malicious damage to a motor vehicle, for each vehicle known to have been damaged on the road, and nine counts of attempting to commit malicious damage to a motor vehicle, for each time a rock was found without a corresponding damaged vehicle, police said.
"Investigators feared that someone may get seriously hurt or killed, whether it be striking a rock while operating a motorcycle or striking a rock, crossing the center line, and causing a head on collision," police said in a Facebook post.
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Police believe more vehicles were damaged than the 11 that they know of, noting that they've found "significant gouges" on the street and in rocks, and asked people who paid for rock damage to their vehicle on the street out of pocket or through insurance to contact them at 781-585-0523 ext. 6662 to see if they can be paid back through the court case.
In Plymouth District Court Tuesday, an attorney for Currier said "there is barely probable cause" in the case, noting "the only thing that the have that connects this particular defendant to all of these crimes is one instance where they have an officer in either camouflage or a ghillie suit sitting in the woods who has no camera."
Currier was ordered held on $1,500 bail, about halfway between what prosecutors and the defense had sought, and told to stay away from victims in the case.
Kingston police said they've gotten 18 calls to the intersection over the last six months for rocks causing upwards of $100,000 worth of damage.
Austin Myette said he hit one two weeks ago, leaving him with a concussion and totaling his car.
After Dustin Starr and his girlfriend Alicia Velazquez hit a rock while they were driving home in April, they kept it, they said, though the car was totaled.
"We launched up into the air, slammed back down," Starr said. "There’s oil fluids everywhere; [it] destroyed the undercarriage."
Velazquez said it's not normal behavior to leave rocks in the road: "Someone with a mind like that, what else could they possibly do?"
Investigators began looking into cars being damaged by rocks or boulders left on the road in February — they've been ripping out the vehicles' undercarriages and causing airbags to go off. Most of the incidents took place overnight and they happened sporadically, police said.
Detectives took over the investigation in June and decided to stake the scene out Monday night after other methods, like electronic surveillance, didn't pan out.
A detective in full camoflauge waited in the woods near Pembroke Street starting at 10 p.m., while it was heavily raining, and within two hours saw a vehicle stop, police said. Someone inside opened the tailgate and put a rock in the middle of the road, and then the vehicle drove onto Reed Street.
About 10 minutes later, investigators approached Currier on his porch, police said. He allegedly admitted driving the vehicle that the detective had seen stop on Pembroke Street but denied stopping there. After further discussion, Currier was arrested.
"The defendant’s residence 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," police said.
Currier was due back in court Oct. 3.
