KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops woman is in disbelief today after waking up to find her pickup truck up on blocks, missing its wheels.
Bobbi Jo Nicholson lives on West Battle Street, and had her Ford F-350 parked on the street.
This morning, it was up on cinder blocks, missing its tires and rims.
Nicholson says it left her shaking her head.
“Well a bit of disbelief that it had happened. When the neighbours all came over, we were all very surprised that none of us heard anything,” said Nicholson.
Nicholson adds there has been trouble in the neighbourhood as of late.
“Just in the last two months almost all of our houses have been broken into. It is something that is happening downtown more frequently on houses. We just weren’t expecting it to happen with our vehicles.”
Corporal Jodi Shelkie of Kamloops RCMP says it’s rare to see thieves take all four wheels directly off of a vehicle.
“Taking all the wheels from a vehicle involves at least two thieves doing the work. It is quite labour intensive; they need somebody there to be working the jack. To get all four wheels off at one time you need a few people. It’s not that often that it happens,” explained Shelkie.
Shelkie says to prevent thefts of wheels, vehicle owners should park in areas with plenty of traffic and close to surveillance cameras, and consider purchasing car alarms with wheel sensors, or individual wheel locks.
“Even just turning your wheels when you are parked makes it harder for them to be removed, because they get stuck in the wheel well. They also have wheel locks that you can buy, and you should put them on each of your wheels if you have really expensive tires or rims.”
