Travis Cheyne alleges his tire was shot out while driving through an intersection in North Battleford. (submitted photo/Travis Cheyne)

By Tyler Marr

ODD OCCURRENCE

Man alleges tire shot out while driving through intersection

Jun 13, 2019 | 6:11 PM

Travis Cheyne was returning from a service call in his work van as he passed through the intersection of Territorial Drive and Highway 4 North.

He heard a bang followed by a whistle and thought maybe something had gone wrong with a gas cylinder before a light blinked on his dashboard indicating he had low air pressure in a tire.

He hurried to his shop down the road and one employee looked at the hole in the tire’s sidewall and thought a bullet may be the culprit.

Cheyne called to have a new tire special ordered and asked the shop to see if they could finding anything inside the tire.

When a shop employee came to drop off the tire, instead of bringing in the tire, he entered with a slug the shop had removed from the tire. Curious, Cheyne and his colleagues conducted a faux CSI investigation and stuck a pencil crayon in the hole and found it sitting at a 45-degree angle.

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“We all hope it is just a random thing but it is real,” he said, adding he believes the incident was the result of kids making a bad decision.

Cheyne posted about the incident on social media and had an overwhelming response. Some have questioned the incident or suggested he may have driven over a bullet. He questioned how he would have driven over a bullet as he does not hunt and the vehicle was never around guns, bullets or taken out hunting.

Cheyne, however, is not overly shaken by the experience and just glad no one was hurt. He said he has had vehicles broken into before and is the victim of petty crime a few times a year. Just last week, he said someone tried to steal one a vehicles.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” he said. “You can’t control it. I just hope I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Though he reached out to the RCMP, Cheyne has little confidence they will find anything but is not upset about that.

“The police are doing the best they can,” he said, adding it has renewed his appreciation for the work officers in the Battlefords undertake.

“If they randomly pull you over and talk to you and take 10 minutes out of your day, just remember, they are probably finding things in other cars so they are doing their job,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Battlefords RCMP said they are aware of the incident and continue to investigate but had no comment at this time.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr