In one neighborhood Sunday, residents were walking around talking about what had happened and working to get their tires fixed. Several said they were surprised that they hadn't heard or seen anything.

"This really floored me," said Martha Dolciamore, a resident of Soquel Glen Mobile Home Park whose niece had a tire slashed on her van. Dolciamore said she is disabled and that her niece is staying with her to help her.

"Without a car we can't get to doctor's appointments or the grocery store or anything," she said. "Hopefully, they will get them quickly. This is so wrong. People depend on their cars so much."

Residents in at least one other mobile home park in the area had their tires destroyed as well, while their cars were parked in driveways next to homes and on the street. The vandals struck other neighborhoods as well.

Most of the cases involved one tire, but some victims had more than one tire destroyed, Sgt. Esther Beckman said.

She said deputies are working with the California Highway Patrol to see whether it could be the same person or people who threw something onto Highway 1 about 5:15 a.m., near Orchard Street, striking a car window and causing an accident.

Beckman, calling the vandalism extreme, said she was hoping that Cabrillo Liquor & Delicatessen at Soquel Drive and Orchard Street might have captured something helpful on surveillance video.

One man said his tire had several puncture marks that looked like they came from a knife or similar instrument. He said it would cost probably about $150 to replace the tire.

Noreen Feuss, who lives on the other side of Soquel Glen, said a neighbor woke her early to tell her about the tire damage.

Feuss' blue Mercury wagon was parked in the driveway beside her mobile home when the tire was slashed, she said.

She said another neighbor, who is older and caring for a sick husband, just began crying when someone told her that her car had been damaged.

"What if she has to get something for him quickly or get him to the hospital?" Feuss said. "It's kind of scary. And one man had three of his tires slashed; that's expensive."