'Ice Pick Bandit' Destroys 70 Tires on Nine Trucks at Arkansas Truck Stop

The vandal truckers call the "Ice Pick Bandit" struck the Southfork Truck Stop in Gurdon, Ark., just off Interstate 30, on the night of Sunday, January 19, 2025. Nine parked 18-wheelers had 70 tires destroyed, Clark County Sheriff Jason Watson told the Arkadelphian, which reported the damage could reach $45,000.

The attack came two days after the bandit hit trucks in Pleasant View, Tenn., on January 17, Overdrive reported. By the end of January, Overdrive counted four states with known attacks in 2025: Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

A pattern going back years

The Gurdon stop had been hit before. Watson said the same thing happened there in September, and Overdrive described the January attack as the second known strike at Southfork. A representative of the truck stop told Overdrive that "this has been going on for two-and-a-half years now," and that the cameras on the lot captured "nothing you could distinguish."

A week before the Arkansas attack, the bandit hit as many as 1,000 truck tires in Georgia, according to Overdrive, and at least one of those trucks suffered a blowout 300 miles from the truck stop where it was damaged. The Arkadelphian, citing the trade press, said the incidents had been occurring since 2023.

What investigators know

The suspect had been captured on video in Florida and Tennessee and appeared to be a white male between 30 and 40 years old with a mustache, the Arkadelphian reported. Overdrive said earlier footage from Tennessee may have shown a red Freightliner belonging to the bandit.

Watson said he was looking for local video and suspected the vandal might park elsewhere and walk to the truck stops. No motive had been established.

"There's no rhyme or reason with the trucks he picks," Watson said. "We just can't figure out the motivation of this guy."

What it means for drivers and fleets

Damage from a puncture is not always obvious at the truck stop. The Georgia blowout hundreds of miles down the road showed that a tire can lose air slowly and fail at highway speed. Drivers who parked overnight at truck stops along the affected corridors had good reason to walk around the truck and check every tire before pulling out.

For fleets, the attacks meant downtime, replacement tires and delayed loads; the Gurdon damage alone was estimated at up to $45,000. The Southfork experience also showed the limits of lot cameras: the truck stop had some coverage but no usable footage. Carriers whose trucks were hit were urged to report the damage to local law enforcement so investigators could connect incidents across state lines.