Man charged with slashing tires of 47 Caldwell County-owned and personal vehicles

CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — A Lenoir man was charged with slashing the tires of 47 county-owned and personal vehicles parked at the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office and Health & Human Services Building in Lenoir late Sunday and early Monday morning.

Carlton Brandon Couto, 23, of 4535 Hartland Road, was arrested and taken into custody just before 4 a.m. as he was standing near the R.H.A. Health building at 2415 Morganton Blvd., beside the Sheriff’s Office and the HHS Building, Capt. Brent Phelps of the Lenoir Police Department said.

Caldwell County deputies responded to a disturbance at 10 p.m. Sunday at Couto’s home. Deputies left and no charges were filed.

Couto then went to the Sheriff’s Office and Health & Human Services Building and slashed the tires of 35 county vehicles and 12 personal vehicles with a knife, according to police reports.

A rock was thrown at the windows of two vehicles, too.

The knife used in the attack was not recovered.

A deputy discovered the damage shortly before 4 a.m. Monday and called Lenoir police.

Couto was sitting outside the nearby R.H.A. building with marijuana and drug paraphernalia in his possession, police said.

He was charged with the drug offenses, and at the same time officers viewed surveillance video.

Couto fit the description of the man seen in the video and was later charged with those crimes.

Couto was charged with 47 counts of injury to personal property, simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, and is being held under $70,000 bond in the Caldwell County Detention Center.

Repairs have been underway all day and will take some time, authorities said.

Cox Media Group