Florida man accused of cutting brake lines on dozens of electric scooters

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (KTLA/CNN) -- A man in Florida has been sneaking around his neighborhood tampering with electric scooters parked on the streets, police say.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department posted a surveillance video Tuesday showing 59-year-old Randall Williams walking up to an electrical scooter on the street, slapping a white sticker on its QR code, and cutting its brake lines, essentially rendering it impossible to use.

Police say that more than 140 scooters have been disabled and vandalized in a similar way in the southeast part of Fort Lauderdale since April 5.

Officers had already homed in on Williams as a possible suspect, and the majority of the acts of vandalism happened within two blocks of his apartment.

Hoping to nab the saboteur, cops staked out the area over the weekend.

Police say they saw him vandalize seven scooters on Saturday, and an additional nine on Sunday.

When they arrested Williams, he had with him two sets of wire cutters, a pair of handheld lock pliers, and he was wearing a glove, the police report says.

Police estimated the cost to fix each scooter at $70. For the total of 20 scooters to which they've linked him so far, the bill comes out to about $1,400.

A spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police told CNN that multiple brands of scooters were affected.

The cost estimate for the vandalism doesn't take into account lost revenues from rentals while the scooters are inactive.

He was booked on charges of criminal mischief, resisting officers, and loitering or prowling. He was released Monday after posting $500 in bond, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

To help protect riders from jumping on a faulty scooter, a company operating the scooters, which authorities didn't name, deactivated all its scooters in the neighborhood, the police report says.