Bullet Hole or Object on Road?

[profjeremy]

I figured this would be fun for the INGO community to determine…

My fiancée was driving on 65 near downtown today when she had a tire blow out. Fortunately, she got off the highway safely and called me to come change her tire. Got the tire changed, looked the flat over before I put it in truck, saw there was a pretty good sized hole in the tread. Squatted down to lift the wheel up and noticed that there was a hole in the underside of the rim! As you can see from the pic, it’s a pretty perfectly round hole. Having seen a few bullet holes in my lifetime, I thought it looked remarkably like one! Plus, something that could put a hole in the tire and punch such a clean hole through the wheel… that eliminates quite a few possibilities!

Wanting to be a good citizen, I called the State Police to let them know what I suspected. Side note: I was very impressed that they actually answered their non-emergency line on the first or second ring and I had a patrol car in my driveway within about 30-40 minutes.

The troopers were great, but determined that it wasn’t a bullet, rather it was an object on the road that had punctured both the tire and rim. To their credit, they took pics, made measurements and even got the opinion of their sergeant. Among other things, they thought the angles made it pretty unlikely that it could have been a bullet. Sent a video to my brother (who’s been a cop for 20+ years) and he thinks it’s a bullet hole. I measured the hole’s outside diameter and it’s about 1/2” and pretty perfectly round. Perhaps reasonable minds can disagree… so what does INGO think and why?

 

[Dentoro]

Sure looks like a bullet hole to me.

 

[dieselrealtor]

I have seen a lot of punctured tires over the years, ASE technician in my younger years, service advisor & service manager.

I have NEVER seen a rim punctured, ever. Something long enough to puncture tire & wheel would likely have stayed in the tire & wheel

 

[patience0830]

Bullet.

 

[firecadet613]

Looks like a bullet hole and happened where bullets often hit cars.

Glad to hear your fiance is OK!

 

[Brad69]

Bro,

You know I love ya move out of INDY.

 

[Mij]

If it’s not a bullet hole, it sure had a lot of velocity coming out of that rim when it went through. Chemical test would verify. JMO

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Dieselrealtor called it. I'm no rocket surgeon, but I can imagine nothing which could cause that damage, yet leave no evidence of itself.

 

[Leo]

I have seen a landscaping spike go through a tire and puncture the rim also, but the hole was jagged in both the tire and the rim and the mangled spike was still there.

Scary deal all the way around.

 

[Mij]

Just my thoughts, but if it was an object on the road and the lack of any remains, I believe the officers involved knew the true answer and didn’t want to express their opinion publicly.

A FOIA for their report might help clear up any confusion.

But that’s another conversation. Again JMO.

 

[Gingerbeardman]

I drive a semi and every time I have a big flat, the offending item is in the tire. Having hit a few things with a variety of vehicles, a stationary object hit by a car tire would move violently from its original position before it could pierce the rim, or it would be big enough she would've seen it. Having also shot a lot of metal things.... I'd agree with the consensus here.

 

[92FSTech]

It does look like a bullet hole. But it could also be road debris, like an exposed piece of rebar that stayed in the concrete but punched a hole. There's a lot of stuff out there harder than aluminum that could do that when hit at speed.

If it was a bullet, a.) it's going to be difficult to prove conclusively without actually having the projectile, and b.) even if they could prove it was a bullet what are they going to do about it? You're talking about a road with thousands if not hundreds of thousands of cars on it daily. It also could have come from somewhere off the highway. Bullets can travel a long way, so that creates a tremendous amount of area to cover, and there are no witnesses. The OP's fiance didn't even see anything.

A FOIA for their report? You're just going to get the same information you already know. There's no conspiracy or coverup here...simply a lack of evidence to build a case that a crime even occurred, and no suspect to prosecute.

 

[thunderchicken]

I've been an ASE auto tech for 25+ years. I agree it looks a lot like a bullet hole at first glance. But, what kind of car and which tire was it? Looking at the wheel,the hole looks pretty far inboard and depending how low the car sits if it were a bullet, I would think it would have had to of been traveling nearly parallel to the road surface and only a few inches off the ground. The hole in the tire looks slightly elongated. Which makes me think something was sticking up and was run over. To get a nice round hole in the wheel the tire puncture would have to be just as round.
I'm thinking something was run over

 

[INP8riot]

I know someone in INGOland has an old alloy wheel with a tire mounted on it sitting on their property that could recreate this scenario...safely of course!

 

[dieselrealtor]

It would probably be a good idea to personally look or have a competent professional pull that wheel and check the hub, rotor, suspension, brake lines Etc

 

[Ark]

I've been an ASE auto tech for 25+ years. I agree it looks a lot like a bullet hole at first glance. But, what kind of car and which tire was it? Looking at the wheel,the hole looks pretty far inboard and depending how low the car sits if it were a bullet, I would think it would have had to of been traveling nearly parallel to the road surface and only a few inches off the ground. The hole in the tire looks slightly elongated. Which makes me think something was sticking up and was run over. To get a nice round hole in the wheel the tire puncture would have to be just as round.
I'm thinking something was run over

Agree. That's a square on hit, inboard of the edge. Exactly where holes from running over stuff happen. Probably pieces of stuff inside the tire if you take it off.

Seen all kinds of stuff spear all the way through a rim. Usually it gets stuck, but not always. Rims are not especially hard metal.

 

[profjeremy]

I've been an ASE auto tech for 25+ years. I agree it looks a lot like a bullet hole at first glance. But, what kind of car and which tire was it? Looking at the wheel,the hole looks pretty far inboard and depending how low the car sits if it were a bullet, I would think it would have had to of been traveling nearly parallel to the road surface and only a few inches off the ground. The hole in the tire looks slightly elongated. Which makes me think something was sticking up and was run over. To get a nice round hole in the wheel the tire puncture would have to be just as round.
I'm thinking something was run over

255/50R19 tire on an SUV. That's essentially what the State troopers determined... the rear fender had about 15 1/2" of clearance from the road, which would have made it an even tighter window for the path of a bullet every inch above that. Impossible to know anything for sure, but it's a plausible explanation and one that left my fiancee feeling much safer than the alternative!

 

[profjeremy]

It would probably be a good idea to personally look or have a competent professional pull that wheel and check the hub, rotor, suspension, brake lines Etc

Yep, it's headed to the shop tomorrow morning for an inspection. Regardless of what it was, kicking up under the car after it hit the wheel and damaging something else was one of my biggest concerns.

I also didn't notice the hole in the wheel until after I had the spare on and I wasn't about to take the spare back off and do a full inspection down by Methodist Hospital!

 

[xwing]

It certainly looks like a bullet hole. But the "angle of attack" the bullet would have to take makes that very unlikely. IMO it's most likely something sitting up on the road (e.g. rebar) that was run over. But we'll never know for sure.

 

[KellyinAvon]

No bacon?