Vigilante eco warriors deflate tyre on gym instructor's Skoda and brand her 'vain for driving gas-guzzling SUV'

Vigilante eco warriors deflate tyre on gym instructor's Skoda and brand her 'vain for driving gas-guzzling SUV'
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Jamie  Micklethwaite

By Jamie Micklethwaite


Published: 30/03/2022

- 17:24

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 10:57

Police have issued appeals for information on the 'Tyre Extinguishers' after a spate of incidents in the South

Vigilante eco warriors deflated a gym instructor's tyre and left a poison pen letter on her windscreen - branding her "vain" for driving a "gas guzzling" SUV.

Carly Bateman was appalled to discover the tyre had been deliberately sabotaged outside her home in Didsbury, Manchester, and was forced to get an Uber to work after she on 23rd March.


A group called the Tyre Extinguishers appear to claim responsibility for the targeted tyre on a note that was left on the windscreen of the Skoda Yeti titled 'Attention - your gas guzzler'.

The note states that the group have deflated the tyre as the 28-year-old's "huge vehicle has massive consequences for others" and that SUVs are for "pure vanity".

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Carly parks her car outside of her home as she only has on street parking and worries that the environmentalists could target her again.

The gym instructor says she normally gets the tram to work but needs a bigger car to carry equipment for her entertainment company which she runs alongside teaching fitness classes.

Tyre Extinguishers defended their actions and bragged that they had "disarmed around 1000 SUVs in the UK in the past few weeks" alone.

Carly, from Manchester, said: "I'm totally up for saving the planet, I do quite a lot in terms of recycling and getting the tram when I don't actually need my car.

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"It worries me that I can't hide it or do anything about it. If it happened another time, it could have been really detrimental to my work.

"I hope they don't do it again. I was worried that if there was an emergency or if it happens to the wrong person, someone disabled, someone going into labour or someone with severe mental health problems, that could really push someone over the edge.

"They can't be going around doing that, there are ways to go about things.

"I'm paranoid, all I can do is park on the street because on street parking is all we have. There's no way of hiding it or anything so it could happen again.

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"A Skoda Yeti is not even dead flash. They said on the note 'you've got a 4x4 in an urban area purely for vanity, you don't need it'.

"You don't know what people do for a living, there's no way I would have a big car if I didn't need it and if it was for vanity I wouldn't get a Skoda Yeti, I'd get a Range Rover or something."

Carly was forced to get a taxi to work but luckily, her dad was able to reinflate her tyre meaning that the stunt only cost her £10.

The note reads: "We have deflated one or more of your tyres.

"You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car.

"We did this because driving around urban areas in your massive vehicle has huge consequences for others."

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