Thieves Are Lurking The Streets of D.C., Taking All Four Wheels From Parked Vehicles

Police believe a set of thieves—two or three people—are prowling the city around two or three in the morning, stealing all four tires off vehicles parked on the street, leaving them setting on yellow beverage crates, sometimes cinder blocks.

They stole all four tires off a woman’s car on L Street SE for the third time in six months. She thought around 2 am. She declined to be identified but expressed frustration that even though she had factory-installed wheel locks, it made no difference.

“I’m presuming they’re selling them. We’re check various platforms to see if they’re selling on the internet or selling them to local businesses. And if you do the 145 vehicles times four times that’s a lot of tires and rims that were going somewhere.” – Fourth Distric Commander Carlos Heraud 

According to DC Police, 145 cars have been stripped of their tires and rims so far this year, with the majority of them being Hondas and Toyotas.

How do we thwart the robbers? Heraud suggested parking close to the curb to prevent them from removing a tire by blocking access to some lug bolts.

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