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Ziplesscars at Forest Hills

By adamg on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:04am

Stripped car

A roving UHub photographer captured the scene around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday in the Zipcar spaces next to the liquor store across from the Forest Hills T stop, where two Honda Insights had had their wheels stolen.

Stripped car at Forest Hills

Neighborhoods: 
Jamaica Plain
Topics: 
Photos
Crime
Free tagging: 
Forest Hills


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Comments

By datadyne007 on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:36am.

"Wheels when you want them" - waaaaay too literal!

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:37am.

Damn, you beat me to it.

By pierce on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 7:55am.

should be plenty of fingerprints all over those lugnuts

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 4:19pm.

i doubt it very much. start it with a breaker bar.... take the lug off with socket/impact driver... finish by tapping socket to ground so the lug falls out.... NO FINGERPRINTS.
check the tops of the wheel wells.... thats where theyre gonna put their fingers.

By MDH on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 1:08am.

"yeah, sure. I'll just check with the boys down at the crime lab, they've got four more detectives working on the case. They got us working in shifts!"

As if the cops are going to bother checking for prints on a wheel theft case...

By anon on Fri, 08/05/2011 - 3:31pm.

The Big Lebowski?

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 8:21am.

Do you have the exact address? I need a battery, side view mirror and right rear quarter panel.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 1:59am.

Ironic that their tag line is "Wheels when you want them". Someone took them too literally.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 3:58am.

Some company invests in an affordable and environmentally-friendly car-sharing program, and some jerk goes and makes things ghetto again.

Hey, JP, weren't you just complaining yesterday that even the city is smart enough not to leave their bikes unattended in JP?

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 8:19am.

Looks like the wheels fell off this idea.

By anon² on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 8:38am.

This happens to residents all the time.

My girlfriend had it happen to her Civic in Brighton (wheels gone, left on milk crates), and my car in Southie once ended up in Lawrence, all for a broken radio deck that looked expensive.

There's very few police on the night shift, and even less doing patrols.

Since this is the city that always sleeps, it's pretty easy to run around doing this kind of thing as long as your quick and quiet.

By issacg on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 9:32am.

A relation had this happen to him in...wait for it...

Vermont.

They left his jeep up on (very neatly) stacked firewood.

I'm surprised that zipcar doesn't have some sophisticated locking lugs or other mechanism since they control all of the maintenance themselves and wouldn't have to worry about other everyday repair folks having the keys.

By cybah on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:33pm.

They get the CHEAPEST cars they can that have Power locks (because of the way the keycard system works)

I am surprised they don't have locking locknuts on there (there are ones that require a special KEY to use to remove the locknuts).

BUT Zipcars are HEAVILY insured, so they will have new tires by the end of the day!

By AlertNewEngland on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 3:50pm.

Locking lugnuts could also prove difficult for people who rent the car and then get a flat.

By Kaz on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 3:59pm.

They could put the lug adapter in the glovebox for Zipcar users to be able to change a tire.

By AlertNewEngland on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 4:27pm.

I was thinking that, but then it's just one more thing to lose.

By anon² on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 6:15pm.

It's rather easy to open a locked car door, get it out of the glove box, and use it.

Plus, most lug nut locks are semi universal, there's not much out there in the way to keep people from taking tires if they really want them.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:43pm.

i guess, if a bmw 325i is considered cheap

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 8:43am.

Zipcar pulled out of JP a few years ago after cars were vandalized. Now this!

By HenryAlan on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 9:43am.

because the cars pictured are parked in... JP.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:33am.

...10 years later there would be a lot less crime.

By Jimbob Duggar on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 2:37pm.

Hi-yooooo!

By NotWhitey on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 1:10pm.

Zipcar just went in to JP a few years ago - at the Loring Greenough house.

By pierce on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 3:41pm.

Zipcars have also been at JP Oil on Centre, and behind El Oriental on Paul Gore Street for at least 3 years.

There are a few cars at Centre and Arborway too, but I think those have only been there a year or so.

By iseutnotlogged on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 5:40pm.

They switch up the locations for a bunch of different reasons. I assume sometimes owners renting out their spaces want them for other purposes.

And there ARE Zipcars in Roxbury - RCC has 4 cars and there are others at locations in lower Roxbury, at the MFA (it's in Roxbury!), on Ward St.

By alkali on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 9:40am.

What do the thieves do with the wheels? I assume they intend to sell them, but I don't think I've ever seen a place that buys used tires, and even so I can't imagine you get very much. Seems like a lot of work for very little payoff.

By Kathode on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 9:42am.

black market in Honda parts. Our neighborhood has had similar thefts of tires, where the car is left on milk crates.

By JP-Stonybrook on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:02am.

Wheels are often universal across a brand. It's likely those wheels will fit most civics. So if you are dishonest and in need of a new set of wheels and tires, you can go steal some. Happens all the time to Acuras with nice wheels that fit civics and accords.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:18am.

Honda parts are some of the most stolen in the US (along with the cars as a whole). My friend had her 4 tires, all the seats, and the airbags stolen from hers (in Seattle). It was a hilarious/sad car after.

By anon² on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:38am.

About $300-400 for 10 min work.

They can be sold to 3rd party garages who will resell them, or even brought in for scrap (although you wouldn't get much).

By Kaz on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:46am.

If I brought my car to a repair shop and they figured out that it needed new wheels, then the guy has to order up new wheels from somewhere, right? If he doesn't ask questions, he can show me that OEM wheels cost $200 each...but he pays the thief $100 each for the stolen wheels. The thief pockets $400, the shop pockets $400, Zipcar's insurance pays for new wheels (and any undercarriage damage...thanks asshole thief for not leaving the car up on blocks), and the person gets OEM Honda wheels (albeit slightly used) for the $800 they would have paid for them anyways.

Also, craigslist.

By SwirlyGrrl on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:40pm.

Honda has a tight lock on parts and charges enormous amounts for just about anything. This feeds a healthy black market in stolen pieces.

By Kaz on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 2:20pm.

Looks like they just used a lug wrench.

By anon² on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 6:18pm.

I've brought my Honda to a dealership for some work and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with parts. The service rates are sky high though.

The real reason is that a lot of Honda part are very exchangeable between different makes and models of their cars. IE, there's demand over a larger number of cars and it's easy to offload stolen parts.

By willisan on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:47am.

a 96 civic, complete with bondo, chopped coil springs, coffee can muffler and a too loud stero blaring regeton music.

By Kathode on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:55am.

loud, obnoxious cars in my neighborhood!

By MassHolio on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:37pm.

The "why aren't there Zipcars in Roxbury/Mattapan" thread. If ZipCar is getting jacked in JP, the odds of them expanding to higher crime areas in Roxbury and Mattapan just went down dramatically.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 3:20pm.

Ah JP, you know if you had a Whole Foods, you'd have an even better class of criminal - someone who steals tires off of BMWs and Lexuses.

How can people afford Zipcars and not tuna salad from Whole Foods? Can I get a line on this?

Shouldn't the car choices be more in line with the ethnic makeup of the area, such as Cadillac El Dorados, or panel trucks?

You asked for it, you got it. Enjoy the crime.

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 7:29pm.

What are you going on about?

By adamg on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 9:52pm.

The manager told officers that when he got to work that morning he found two Honda Fits sitting on milk crates with their wheels removed.