State lawmaker Durhal has 4 tires stolen off car on primary day

DETROIT (WJBK) - "Tuesday, Election Day, I’m getting ready to go out and vote and cast my vote and I hear a loud knock on my door."

Current State Representative Fred Durhal, in the midst of a hard fought campaign for a state senate nomination, had to overcome a rather unusual obstacle on Election Day. It was an obstacle he was alerted to by his neighbor on the west side of Detroit. 

"He says, Fred, look at your car. I look over and my car is sitting on bricks." Sometime during the night all four tires were stolen off the car Durhal was using for the campaign. The crime was caught on home security cameras.

"He rolls the tires down the street," Durhal explains. "He was out here for about two hours taking the wheels off my car."

Durhal says his 2008 Ford Fusion was nothing special, which has him wondering if this was politically motivated. 

"Just regular stock wheels. That's why I thought it was ironic that someone would come and take my wheels on Election Day," Durhal says. He ended up calling his dad, who lives around the corner, and got a ride to his polling place and then continued on the campaign trail. 

"I'm going to go until the wheels come off, no pun intended," he says. "It didn't stop me from going to vote and meeting voters yesterday."

But Fred Durhal lost the Democratic nomination for state senate to Marshall Bullock by just 1,600 votes. 

"I don't think you've seen the last of Fred Durhal, I can tell you that," he says. "We will continue to serve and fight for the people."

He also is out $5,000 which he owed to the rental car agency. He says it’s all just another reason to get out and vote. 

"Then my tires get stolen and you have deal with the insurance issue," he says. "But it does let you know how serious it is because folks need relief, particularly in this area that I live in."