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[above: Bamboo spike-fortified village in Vietnam]

There’s been a spate of hidden, sharpened spikes discovered recently in a lake and in parks. Machine-sharpened spikes were found in the bottom of a shallow lake in Seattle and in parks located in the Netherlands.

Seattle parks and police are shaking their heads over a baffling mystery, one that was designed with “malice”–a horror story in the making before it was discovered by a local swimmer.

UPDATE at end of story.

A man wading in the water at the Green Lake Boating Center in Seattle felt a “sharp jab in his foot” Sunday while wading with his family. Pat Boltz reached down and found a metal rod. The rod was sharpened by a machine on the end and it hadn’t gotten there by accident. Nor were the other 38 “spikes”, 2-3 ft. long, found by Seattle police divers.

Much to the park police’s horror, someone had planted 39 metal rods in the bottom of the lake near the center and southern docks of the boating center. An area where swimming is prohibited, canoeists and row boats are available for rent. The metal rods were stuck in the bottom of the lake, their sharpened ends pointing up. Boltz was wading in the shallow water when he felt one stab his foot.

This is not the first instance of a discovery of metal spikes being planted in a mysterious manner, as sharpened metal spikes planted in hidden pits were found a little over a month ago in the Netherlands.

Three mysterious pits have been discovered in parks in the city of Venlo near the German border. A man fell into into a 5′ deep by 2 1/2′ wide pit hidden by brush and leaves while out preparing a race course. The pit was lined with 6-12″ sharpened metal stakes embedded in concrete. Luckily the man suffered only minor injuries. It was the third such pit found in the area.

UPDATE: Mystery in Green Lake solved, though not in the Netherlands: Steel Spikes in Seattle’s Green Lake Mystery Solved

Source - Seattle Times - Sharpened Spikes at Green Lake
Source - International Herald Tribune - Man Slightly Injured by falling into spike-lined pit in Dutch park

Image - Bamboo Fortified Village