Warning over jump in thefts of wheels

By Dong Hui  |   2008-12-23  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CITY police are warning drivers, especially truck drivers, to park in parking lots after a wave of tire and wheel thefts.

Last Thursday morning, a long-distance truck was parked in a temporary parking belt near the ramp of Xupu Bridge in Pudong. The two drivers, who had transported a cargo from Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province to Shanghai, tried to drive off to deliver the load after they awoke at 9am but the truck would not move.

When they got out to investigate they discovered the truck was perched on wooden blocks and its four wheels had been stolen.

The driver, surnamed Yang, said: "We were too tired to be easily woken after a 36-hour drive."

The four stolen wheels were worth about 10,000 yuan (US$1,461). The victims called the police. They did not have enough money on them to replace the wheels.

Similar cases have been reported in other suburbs this month. Five wheels were stolen from a bus parked on Huqingping Highway near a Yijia Restaurant on December 14. A day earlier, a car's two front wheels were removed after it had been parked in the Pengpu New Estate, a residential neighborhood in Zhabei District.

"The tire of a large truck is worth at least 1,000 yuan, even secondhand," said one driver, surnamed Chen, who has had his wheels stolen in the past. "If it is sold with the steel rims and other components, it would be easy to charge 2,000 yuan for the whole wheel."

"Thieves must have ways of selling the goods. They might get cash for the tires from private vehicle maintenance shops," Chen said.