A local tow truck driver’s popular social media videos document theft of car wheels and offer insight on how to keep it from happening.
Police statistics in D.C., Maryland and Virginia show the crime is up. Experts theorize the uptick has to do with lingering parts shortages from the pandemic.
“So I started getting one and then two, and then it was a couple a day, and then it was like five or six a week,” tow truck driver Beebo Aburish said.
Later model Toyotas and Hondas top the list because of interchangeable aspects of their wheels, he said.
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He works in D.C., Maryland and Virginia and said he’s frequently called to surface parking lots of hotels near Interstate 95 and the Beltway where wheel thieves can make a quick escape.
Aburish said he would not rent one of the more highly targeted makes of cars.
“The rims are nice, and they’re coming on all the stock vehicles,” he said. “It’s not like it’s anything special. So, my only suggestion is people have to get those little steel wheels and the hubcaps that nobody wants.”
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The average theft of all four wheels is generally accomplished in a few minutes and most wheel locks can be easily defeated by thieves, he said.
