By Wayne K. Roustan and Tonya Alanez
Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A 59-year-old man who police say was caught in the act of vandalizing electric scooters — slicing the brake lines on as many as 140 — offered no motive during his arrest, a Fort Lauderdale police report said.
He also requested a lawyer and said he "did not want to dig himself into a grave," police said.
During the dark predawn hours, Randall Thomas Williams would set out with a single glove, wire cutters and pliers and, while sticking to the shadows and alleyways of his Las Olas neighborhood, search for the controversial, yet popular, rental scooters that have swarmed the city for nearly a year, police said.
He's been doing it since at least May, police said, and has vandalized at least 140 e-scooters in the same fashion, most within a two-block radius of Williams' apartment at the corner of Southeast First Street and Southeast 12th Avenue between Broward and Las Olas boulevards.
Police aren't sure whether anyone has been hurt as a result of a vandalized scooter.
The one-year permits granted to e-scooter companies Lime, Bird and Bolt during the city's pilot program will expire this month and a thorough discussion about the future of e-scooters in the city is overdue, City Commissioner Steve Glassman said.
The scooters have been wildly popular with rides nearing the 1 million mark for the year, he said, and this arrest will add to the conversation.
"Safety, regulations, enforcement, how many, how fast, all of this is going to be on the table," said Glassman, who represents Fort Lauderdale beach.
Electric scooters can reach speeds of 15 to 17 mph and have resulted in more than 70 accidents, including 57 hospital visits and one death between December and April, according to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
"As far as injuries go, we are not able to determine if scooter crashes that previously occurred were due to scooters that had been tampered with," said Casey Liening, a spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Before Williams' arrest early Sunday on a felony charge of criminal mischief and misdemeanor counts of prowling and resisting arrest, police followed him and witnessed him in the act, they say.
They already had surveillance video recorded at about 3:47 a.m. Sept. 22 showing Williams tampering with the handlebars and wheels of two scooters.
On Saturday, as police watched, Williams went out around 4 a.m. and stealthily sliced the cables on seven scooters. On Sunday, they watched him do the same to nine more, according to a police report.
Despite two voicemail messages and a visit to his home, Williams could not be reached for comment. Online court records did not identify a defense lawyer.
"My friend does not want to talk to you, period," a man who called and identified himself as Chris Marlowe shouted at a reporter late Tuesday afternoon.
A neighbor said Williams rides a bike, doesn't own a car and had been seen fewer than a dozen times in the 1 year the neighbor had lived there.
"He's a recluse. He hardly ever comes out," said the neighbor, who declined to be named. "I don't even know his name."
A representative from Lime was in the neighborhood asking questions a couple months ago and left a business card, the neighbor said.
A police report shows that it was two local Lime employees who alerted police to the vandalism of their scooters.
Bolt and Bird also were affected, a police report said, but neither of those companies responded to requests for comment for this article.
"Lime takes vandalism seriously and we are thankful that FLPD was able to apprehend a suspect in this case," a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday in an emailed statement. "Lime will pursue appropriate legal action against those that damage or vandalize our property."
During the investigation, the scooter vendors remotely deactivated all of their e-scooters in the area to reduce risk to riders.
It costs $200 to repair each scooter, police said. The loss of revenue that 140 scooters would have generated since April is still being calculated.
Police had their sights on Williams as a suspect since July, police reports show.
After reporting repeated vandalized scooters, the local Lime employees reached out to a business with a video camera set up for surveillance and asked to park some scooters there. It was around the corner from Williams' apartment.
It didn't take long to obtain video evidence showing an older man with clippers crouching next to two scooters, which were later inspected and found with cut brake cables.
They took a screenshot of the man in the video, and showed it around the neighborhood until someone recognized him, a police report said.
When police officers closed in on Williams early Sunday morning and a patrol car with flashing lights pulled up, Williams balled his fists, braced, tensed, pull away from officers and refused to let go of the objects in his hands, the report said.
Upon arrest, Williams wore one glove and carried two sets of wire cutters and a pair of pliers.
He was booked into the Broward Main Jail at 6:16 a.m. Sunday and was released more than 21 hours later after posting $500 bond, records show.
It is not known if Williams will face more charges, but the police investigation continues.
Investigators urge anyone who sees someone tampering with electric scooters to call 911 immediately. Anyone who finds a scooter that appears to have been tampered with should contact the vendor listed on the scooter.
