Wheels Stolen Off of Vehicle -- Hot New Trend

I have a friend whose wife is Scottish - you wouldn't know it - I thought it was a foreign language. He has to interpret a lot of the time. Far northern I think he said.

The Brits came up with some weird terminology - particularly in CRICKET. Where a delivery isn't by the postman - but a very hard ball flung at 160km/hr. As for being out - that's when you're not actually OUT any more.

["Cricket," George Bernard Shaw wrote, "is a game played by 11 fools and watched by 11,000 fools."]

 

I don't know if stealing wheels off of vehicles can be defined as a "hot new trend". I think as far as automobile thievery goes, it's a timeless classic.
It's true that for determined enough criminals wheel locks aren't a guaranteed deterrent. But I look at a lot of theft prevention like the old joke about the two guys trying to escape the bear. The one guy see's the bear and say's Run! The other guy say's "You can't out run a bear". And the other guy say's..." I don't have to out run the bear, I just have to out run you. "
In other words, you just want your vehicle to be that much more of an unnecessary risk or hassle, that passing on it becomes the choice the thieves make.
Wheel locks are probably the most basic, and one of the cheaper options. You can escalate "security" to higher levels, with alarm systems.
I'd feel like if I combined wheel locks, with an impact or motion sensing alarm system, I'd done about as much as I could. If they steal them after that? Then at least I tried. But there is probably no way to guarantee security.
We all like nice wheels. But probably the safest thing would be to have the cheapest, ugliest looking wheels possible.

Maybe that was the philosophy behind The Prius's IMO incredibly ugly wheel covers?

 

I can see it now, two guys sitting in a holding cell.
"What are you in for?"
"Grand theft auto, I boosted a Ferrari. How about you?"
"I got snagged lifting some Prius wheels."
"BWAHAHAHA"

 

Another good reason to have 15" originals - they'd wander up to it, "Hmmm - they're only hubcaps" - and walk off to better pickings. Mind you, I haven't priced the hubcaps - I imagine they aren't cheap.

 

I have a hard time understanding people from the US Deep South.

People from places the Underground Railroad went through pretty much sound like they're from the "jets" (long gone Chicago Housing Authority projects) or they sound like old blues musicians such as Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter.

To me, the really rural folks speak like Mark Twain wrote dialect in Huckleberry Finn, but you can't go back over the page to figure it out.

I found it was almost easier to read Chaucer or Beowulf. YMMV.



Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Man I bought a nice set with tires for $400 from a member here.

 

3 or 4? Only 3 were taken here.

 

Here's a story from my home town newspaper about thieves making off with tires from a local Chevrolet dealer...Yikes...

Grand larceny under investigation at local car dealership | Courts/Crime/Police | normantranscript.com

FWIW I had a similar issue when I lived in Miami where someone jacked my old Honda Civic up and stole all four wheels and tires while my car was parked in front of an apartment I was renting. This was in the late 1980's...

 

I remember going out one evening to move my brother's car which was parked in front of our house. Somebody had broken out both sealed beam headlights.

 

Literally de-lighted, but certainly not delighted!

 

My brother was certainly not delighted, but his car was.

 

Probably went to someone's hydroponics system.

 

Actually the broke them (broken glass on the road), not stole them

 

Message to the OP - this is what we have to deal with in Oakland. In my neighborhood, on my street, cars are stolen all the time. One neighbor had their CRV stolen twice. Another neighbor had their truck stolen, again twice. A third neighbor with a nice all black Mercedes with primo rims woke up to find the car on blocks and all four wheels gone. Replacement cost to insurance company $18'000.

 

Glad I don't have a

Glad I don't have a Mercedes!

 

I removed the stock hubcaps and bought the plug for the nice 15-in wheels hidden underneath. I hope they're not considered 'fancy' enough to steal.