On the afternoon of Sept. 13, a large number of brightly colored thumb tacks were found scattered on the Minuteman Bikeway in Arlington behind Not Your Average Joe's.

Arlington resident and cyclist Brian Ristuccia told the Advocate he didn't notice the tacks until he heard a noise coming from his tire.

It was a tack, stuck in his wheel, hitting the pavement.

Ristuccia said he stopped into The Bike Stop at 43 Dudley St. at 11:15 a.m. to get the tire tube replace on his bike. When he arrived, they discovered a tack in both his front and back tires.

Bike Stop manager Macon Lockery said they had about five customers over the course of a half an hour stop in for tack related flats. Some cyclists had one or both tires flat and some tires had multiple tacks in them.

A few minutes later, Ristuccia called the Arlington Police Department, who notified the Department of Public Works. Ristuccia walked back up the bike path, looking for the area where the tacks were dropped.

"We walked up the path until I stepped on one of the tacks," he said. "It looked like someone just dumped out a jumbo box of tacks."

While DPW cleaned up the tacks and Ristuccia and another cyclist waved down people to keep them from biking or stepping on the tacks.

Ristuccia estimated there were anywhere from 100-200 tacks in the area.

"I would say someone thought this was a harmless prank or inconvenience," Ristuccia said. "Really, it's not a harmless prank."

He explained that when a bike gets a flat tire, it can be difficult to stop or street, especially for inexperienced cyclists. The sharp curve in the path near where the tacks were found, Ristuccia said, can increase that danger.

The Minuteman Bikeway is also used heavily by pedestrians, both throughout the day and during peak morning and evening commute hours. Ristuccia noted he didn't run into any on his morning commute on the bikeway and suspects the tacks were dropped sometime afterwards.

Ristuccia also noted seeing several people using wheelchairs or walkers on the Minuteman that day.

"These are people that don't need that sort of aggravation," he said. "If it's someone that's doing this they really need to knock it off."