Vacationers Return Home To Find Wheels Stolen, Cars On Blocks
By Mark Ackerman
DENVER (CBS4) - White sand, crystal blue water, and great fishing. Ari Chopra's trip to the Bahamas was postcard-perfect until he got a call from the Hampton Inn near Denver International Airport, where he parked his car.
Suddenly, the wheels came off.
"They informed me my truck was sitting on cinder blocks in the parking lot," Chopra said.
All four of his wheels were stolen and his truck was carefully balanced on oversized garden pavers.
"That was nice of them," Chopra said. "Really it was crazy, there wasn't even a scratch on the car."
His first thought was how was he going to get home to the other side of the state?
"I wonder if Uber drives back to Glenwood Springs? That's what I was thinking. How much was the Uber?" he recalled.
Chopra wasn't the only one. There were 16 wheel thefts near DIA over the first six months of 2016. All thefts from motor vehicles near the airport were up 168 percent year to year.
Sky Coleman-Weisz, from Wyoming, was in the line for the Dumbo ride at Disney World when he got the call from police that his wheels were stolen from the airport Holiday Inn.
Andy Kaufman and his family were visiting the Alamo last summer only to return home to find his car, making its last stand, on jacks in the airport's economy lot.
The Denver Police Department posted a warning about wheel thefts on nextdoor.com, advising residents to invest in locking lugnuts for their wheels and perhaps even buying "the boot" to protect your car.
The post created a heated debate asking if DPD was doing enough to prevent property crime.
"These are real professionals, they get in and they get out very, very quickly," said police spokesperson John White, who cautions the wheel theft problem is happening in neighborhoods across Denver.
Stapleton, Montbello, Northeast Park Hill and Green Valley Ranch were also hard hit, according to police statistics.
STATS: View The Data
White recommends parking in a well lit area where you can expect a lot of foot traffic.
"They have the types of tools they need to remove these wheels quickly," he said. "Given the right opportunity, they will relieve you of your rims."
"They probably have a good supply of blocks and a good pit crew, too," said Chopra, who can fortunately joke about the incident now. His insurance company had new wheels on his truck before he arrived home from his trip.
"I just had to pay my deductible," he said.
Mark Ackerman is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. Follow him on Twitter @ackermanmark
