Terrifying discovery: Car owners wake up to severed brake lines in Camelback East neighborhood

Phoenix car owner's brake lines cut and she found out while driving

People in a Camelback East neighborhood woke up to severed brake lines in their cars. FOX 10's Matt Galka reports.

PHOENIX - Multiple people in a central Phoenix neighborhood say they woke up on Jan. 19 to a frightening realization: the brake lines on their cars were all cut and some didn't find out until they were driving.

"And he was like, ‘someone wanted you dead today. Someone cut all four of your brake lines on your car.’"

That's not what you want to hear, but that's the situation Rachel Leinson found herself in on Wednesday. She got in her Jeep near 32nd Street and Indian School Road to grab lunch and something wasn't right.

"I was pulling out of my parking spot and as I was backing out, I realized when I was pushing on the brakes a little, there was no give, it was just slamming right onto the ground - the brake pedal."

Luckily, she wasn't going that fast and grabbed the emergency brake. She discovered severed brake lines and spilled brake fluid in puddles on the ground.

Leinson thought she may have been targeted.

"I was crying, I was really scared. Maybe there's people who don't love me, but they definitely don't know how to cut a brake line."

She and her husband later discovered multiple other people in their Nextdoor app saying the same thing: their brake lines were cut, too.

Unlike other auto misdeeds, where parts can be stolen for value such as catalytic converters, mechanic Mike Stanley says there are only bad outcomes from targeting a car's brakes.

"It's just criminal. It really is. It could cause a catastrophic situation. I don't understand it either. I don't know what thrill they get from that, but there is no benefit to anything."

Some of Leinson's neighbors told her that one of the victims ended up hitting a tree, but they're ok.

Phoenix police say they do have a police report on this, but unfortunately, no one had any clear surveillance video.

If you have any information, you're asked to call the Phoenix Police Department.