APD Alert - Tire Theft Concerns

From APD...

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Dear Foothills Neighbors,

I’d like to alert you to a crime trend occurring city-wide that is growing: tire theft. Vehicles parked in driveways are vulnerable, and offenders are disabling garage/flood lighting to avoid being seen. If you hear something suspicious in your driveway or neighbor’s driveway that sounds like an offender could be removing tires from a vehicle, please call police! If you can see from a safe place, please give our dispatchers descriptions of offenders.

The most popular vehicles being victimized are trucks and SUVs. Vehicles are being scouted during the day, and in some cases the lug nuts are being loosened, and offenders return at night to disable security lighting and get the vehicle up on blocks (some offenders bring their own blocks and others are using landscaping boulders) and remove the tires. Aluminum rims are hot items too.

The Foothills Area Command has the lowest rate of tire theft now city-wide for these thefts, but as pressure is brought upon the teams of criminals committing these crimes, they may be pushed into our area. The Foothills has had 17 of these thefts year-to-date. The most common times are from 2:00-6:00 am and the most occurrences in our area are on Tuesday nights in the Foothills Area Command.

How to protect yourselves? Park in your garage if at all possible, watch for possible offenders scouting neighborhoods, look out for yourself and your neighbors – report suspicious behavior such as anyone tampering with garage/outdoor lighting, going near a vehicle to loosen lug nuts, hearing strange noises at night that could be offenders, place security lighting higher, out of reach.


Be safe!
Jill Garcia, Crime Prevention Specialist
Foothills Area Command, APD
332-5240