[Rodie09]

Scary

Worst nightmare coming true. There is another theft that I am always worried about - but have not heard of : Wiper blades

Perhaps its got to do with the lack of any demand it may have. But a very easy steal, no doubt. Not much one can do abut it.

[sajo]

Cops need to watch out for suspicious movement of pick up trucks, small lorries at odd hours in the vicinity of the vehicles whose wheels were stolen. Vehicles who tilt to land on their discs/suspension make a loud thud which would have woken up residents for sure. I know because I have heard it once, when it happened below my window, expensive wheels off a Camaro were flicked while those on my beater Corolla (but with new tyres) were spared, while being parked right next to it. By the time cops came, they were long gone.

[lemedico]

Rampant vehicle vandalism in Belagavi, Karnataka as well. Along with wheel theft in nehru nagar college road, there is also a large number of monogram theft, vandalism etc.

Here is one such unfortunate image, the vehicle belongs to a medical student.

[rageshgr]

Too bad! Badly need locking nuts! That is easily 35k-60k worth of wheel/tyre combo that they have stolen from each vehicle! And the agony of getting someone to actually home home and fix the tyres as the vehicles can't move an inch.

[Arjun Reddy]

So do car alarms and Autocop alarms not work in such a situation? I am sure at least a few cars were fitted with these?

All in all a very sad state of affairs. i:

[govigov]

Originally Posted by gkveda

This has incidentally happened in Kasturi Nagar on 2nd September. 3 cars parked in a row opposite to a park (One of them were my cousine's Renault kwid) are impacted with this group.

Two wheels of Kwid were stolen from my cousine's car.

Out of curiosity? Were they stolen from the same side i.e left or right? I am hearing that it may have been from the side that is closest to the edge of the road, that way the theft is relatively, undetected.

[silverado]

Assuming these go to some place where they can sell it off as second hand alloy wheels, is it possible to trace them?
Do these alloy wheels come with some serial numbers?

[naveenroy]

From the number of cars, it seems obvious they use power tools. But won't these be loud - esp in night times when it is quiet? I am very curious about the MO!

[callnishanth]

Do you suppose there any addons/options available in the central locking system so that an alarm can be raised which such an incident occurs ?

[Maverift]

Scary and Worrisome. What stops these thieves from jumping a gate and remove tires from car parked inside a gate as well.
About alarms, I remember that my old first generation Swift used to start a siren even when some loud crackers are burst in the vicinity. Haven't seen my Fluidic Verna or any of the other new cars do that.

[ks1418]

This brings me back to the old memories when we had rear wipers and side mirrors being stolen in East Delhi, years back. That gang went on the spree and were quite famous to steal only the rear wipers.

This is a sad to see what's happening in Bangalore!

[Sarath_MoJa]

Such a terrible sight. Owners must be mourning their losses running to several thousands.

In our city too, Thefts from parked vehicles have been on the rise. Thieves are able to break the window glass in a matter minutes and without attracting the attention of people nearby and are decamping with handbags, laptops and other precious items.

CCTV Cameras should be installed in these parking areas so that that should effectively help to identify these culprits.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

From the number of cars, it seems obvious they use power tools. But won't these be loud - esp in night times when it is quiet? I am very curious about the MO!

Not necessarily noisy. All that is needed is to loosen the wheel nut by a wheel spanner by one turn and use a cordless drill to loosen the nut in a few seconds at the most. If it is run at medium speed, they dont even make much noise. It is the air powered wrenches used in service centers that make a noise due to the moving parts and the torque clutch. Even an X spanner can be rotated easily to loosen the nuts without making noise, but is relatively slower compared to a power tool.

I feel that they have replicated a pit stop style plan with at least three crooks and a fourth one as a driver(optional).

• Crook 1 and 2 start loosening the wheel nuts
• Crook 3 Jacks up the car and goes in search of stones
• Crooks 1 and 2 would have started to remove the wheels
• 3 hands over the stones to 1 and 2 and by the time they place it under the car, 3 will release the jack and get going while 1 and 2 carry their respective wheels
• Why I believe the above happened is because in case of the brezza they have kept the stones under the brake disc and drum which would have been possible only after removing the wheel. If they used a little more thought, they could have supported the stones under the chassis and removed the wheel simultaneously .
• Crook 4 would be puffing a cigarette somewhere and keeping a watch on the surroundings while the others would have carried out their job. He could be the boss as well, in a supervisory role

My area has a lot of such specimen cars and I warned few of my neighbours about this incident. If that was not enough, we have enough small time mechanics around so there is no dearth of human resources. Investing in a set of anti theft nuts is a very sensible idea, except that one must choose a reliable brand which wont get shaven off/rusted or break away under pressure.

My cousin also parks in a similar way so I was planning to gift him a set. Will update in case I get anything reliable.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by PearlJam

I would have expected them to rest the discs/drums directly on the road, in the interest of time

It is possible only if they really want to deliberately keep the car to rest on discs drums. And this requires more effort and time than resting on brick/stone/Jack.

Reason being:

1. To remove wheels, they have to put something beneath the axle. Else, it is not possible to remove the wheels directly since the entire car weight will be on wheels
2. If they really want to rest the car on ground, then, after removing the wheel, someone has to hold the car up and remove the stones /bricks/jack. Else, these items will be stuck under the car.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by govigov

Out of curiosity? Were they stolen from the same side i.e left or right? I am hearing that it may have been from the side that is closest to the edge of the road, that way the theft is relatively, undetected.

Yes, both wheels from left side were stolen, i.e., the side which is not exposed to road visibility directly. Also, it is easy for them to remove the wheels by sitting in the open drainage since this will be more secured compared to road side.