Wheel thefts on the rise in metro Atlanta

ATLANTA — Bandits are stealing wheels and leaving dozens of cars on blocks across the metro.
 
Channel 2 Action News decided to dig deeper and went uncover with police to try to wheel thieves in the act.
 
Channel 2 investigative reporter Erica Byfield found the criminals are after factory tires and rims.
 
Investigators told her there are theories about why that is so.
 
We put in an open records request and then poured through Atlanta Police Department reports and found 2015 and 2016 American-made cars and Hondas are very popular.
 
From January to May, officers logged 111 reports for wheel theft.

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The crimes are startling the victims.
 
"Nothing was damaged besides my pride and the fact that my wheels and tires were taken," Vaughn Davis said.

The criminals are swiping wheels and rims from cars, trucks and SUVs. There was even a report of thieves stealing wheels off of a tractor-trailer. 
 
The rise in this kind of theft is not lost on the police, in the middle of the night special teams of officers are on the hunt.
 
Byfield asked to ride along. She sat next to Officer Matt Gilstrap as he worked into the night.
 
Gilstrap is a part of Atlanta's Zone 6 Crime Suppression Unit. "In the time of night that they are doing it, for whatever reason, people aren't seeing it," he said.
 
While Byfield was in the car, close to midnight, Gilstrap and his team zeroed in on the Virginia Highland neighborhood.
 
Gilstrap drove a marked vehicle, while others on the team manned unmarked cars.
 
In Zone 6, year to year, wheel and rim thefts are up 137 percent.
 
Gilstrap told Byfield catching the criminals is not easy because they are fast. "We think it is a lot of 'crime of opportunity,'" he said. He added that the tree-lined streets make it easy for the criminals to conceal their activity.
 
Several victims told Byfield the missing wheels and rims are only part of the problem.

Mary Jo Dubina said the criminals caused $6,000 dollars in additional damage to her Ford Fusion. She now has new wheels and new lug-nut locks.
 
"Definitely, go get those," Dubina said.
 
Police suspect the crime tends to occur between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.
 
While Byfield was with the Crime Suppression Unit, the officers were specifically looking for trucks and SUVs; vehicles that could haul a tire away without someone noticing.

Cox Media Group