Be careful about your car tires (Annandale: home, landscaping, neighborhood)

[Flamingo13]

Our friends who live in Annandale (in a really nice section) - had all four tires/wheels stolen off their Honda in the late, late hrs. of Sat. night/early Sun. a.m.

Police said they were number 55 to report that recently and they were the 5th or 6th in their neighborhood. Apparently, the thieve(s) are after alloy rims - they had the nerve to take blocks from my friends' landscaping to put under one side of the car, used their own jack (the thieves) on the other side as well as more blocks.

They also were told by the police that locking lug nuts are basically worthless - thieves have the keys.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

Our friends who live in Annandale (in a really nice section) - had all four tires/wheels stolen off their Honda in the late, late hrs. of Sat. night/early Sun. a.m.

Police said they were number 55 to report that recently and they were the 5th or 6th in their neighborhood. Apparently, the thieve(s) are after alloy rims - they had the nerve to take blocks from my friends' landscaping to put under one side of the car, used their own jack (the thieves) on the other side as well as more blocks.

They also were told by the police that locking lug nuts are basically worthless - thieves have the keys.

Out of curiosity, if the locking lug nuts are worthless, what can we do about this warning? Pull my tires off of the car every night and bring them in the house?

[Flamingo13]

Not sure -(Friend is planning on getting a security camera (at least have a photo maybe).

Park in a garage if you have one? sensor lights (although they have those but it was after midnight, probably 1-3 a.m. according to police), get a big dog? LOL - just wanted to let folks know. (I need to Google wheels/tires to find out the terminology for the whole thing)

[HereinVA]

Originally Posted by spencgr

Out of curiosity, if the locking lug nuts are worthless, what can we do about this warning? Pull my tires off of the car every night and bring them in the house?

Maybe this "warning" will encourage some who have a home with a garage, but store stuff in their garage and park in their driveways, to clear out enough space in their garage to park a car?
We typically park in our garage, but right now my husband has a specific project going on that involves storing a lot of stuff in our garage. It's been months that he's been parking in the driveway, and honestly, I'm not happy about it. I just feel his car is safer in the garage--plus I feel like anyone who is "casing" the neighborhood will notice what types of cars are typically in specific driveways--and when they notice cars not in the driveway, they know when no one is home.

[spencgr]

Don't have a garage, so I'll have to chalk this one up to "oh, well".

[car54]

My solution is to not buy cars with alloy wheels. As we can see, they're attractive to thieves...plus if they are damaged by a big pothole, etc....they're big bucks to replace. Steel wheels are dirt cheap and nobody wants to steal them.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by car54

My solution is to not buy cars with alloy wheels. As we can see, they're attractive to thieves...plus if they are damaged by a big pothole, etc....they're big bucks to replace. Steel wheels are dirt cheap and nobody wants to steal them.

oh, I missed the part about the alloy wheels. I think I am pretty safe with my base model 2006 Nissan Altima......

Whew!

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by car54

My solution is to not buy cars with alloy wheels.

My solution is to live in a better part of town or if you can't, use Zipcar.

[VRE332]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

My solution is to live in a better part of town or if you can't, use Zipcar.

Annadale has got some bad parts

[car54]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

My solution is to live in a better part of town or if you can't, use Zipcar.

Well, I guess that's a viable solution if the car never leaves home. Mine do.