Chrome rims stolen from Cadillac Escalades and other cars

Chrome rims stolen: First thing in the morning, the sight on the sales lot could make any car dealer shudder: two lavish Cadillac Escalades propped up on cinder blocks, their chrome rims.

The scene last month was the handiwork of thieves who strike mostly upscale cars or trucks — in driveways, parking lots and, in this case, an Apple Valley dealership — and swipe their coveted chrome wheels.

"They just wanted the chrome rims," said Tami Oehrlein, sales manager at Walser Cadillac in Apple Valley, which has lost an estimated $20,000 worth in chrome rims and wheels. "They could have stolen the whole vehicles. They could have had a joy ride. But they just wanted the chrome rims."

Oehrlein and other dealers in the metro area are seeing more of the nighttime extractions. In the past year and a half, she says, her dealership has been struck five times by what she considers a sophisticated band of rim thieves. In a pair of cases in which the bandits couldn't pilfer the chrome rims because they were locked, they stole the two Escalade SUVs entirely.

"They know what they're doing," said Oehrlein, who sobbed earlier this spring when she saw a few of her Escalades without wheels. "It's not just a rookie who says, 'Gee, those are nice chrome rims.' I definitely believe it's a ring."

Police aren't assuming that the crooks are that advanced, or that the occasional pilfering is the work of one group. In fact, wheel theft — usually by mounting the vehicles on logs, old tires or blocks — has been around for decades. But thanks to chrome rims flaunted by rappers and professional athletes, demand for the shiny orbs has soared.

"Greater temptation," explained Capt. Brad Leach of the Burnsville Police Department, which in the past few months has seen two local dealerships struck, for a loss of $5,300.

From his teenage son, Leach has been able to pick up on their popularity, price and even some of the lingo. "It's quite expensive, but any young males … or females, too, would like the chrome rims."

Chrome rims thefts have been a nuisance in other parts of the country. In Phoenix, for example, police have been searching for the "Lug Nut Bandits," who snatch wheels about once a night, mostly from in front of people's homes.

Aftermarket decorative alloy wheels and chrome rims can range widely in price, but local car parts dealers say they usually start at $1,000 for a set of four and can go up to $15,000 or more. A trade group for auto-accessory makers says about $3.3 billion in chrome rims were sold last year, a 20 percent gain since 1999.

That willingness among buyers will encourage thieves to strike and resell the alloy wheels for a fraction of the price, said Capt. Merle Lohse of the Apple Valley police.

"As long as there's a market out there, I don't think they'd stop after one time," Lohse said.

Removing the wheels is relatively easy and can be done in minutes if they aren't secured by locking lug nuts, a set of which costs about $50.

Although St. Paul police say wheel theft isn't a huge problem, that might be because the city does not have as many car dealerships as in some suburbs.

And each year, when the weather warms up and more people are using chrome rims or alloy wheels, the number of wheel thefts increase, said officer Paul Schnell, St. Paul police spokesman. Some St. Paul residents have walked to their cars in the morning and found them up on cinder blocks, the wheels missing.

In recent years, chrome wheels have gotten a visibility boost from certain rappers, who flash their rims like the diamonds in their ears. Since the late 1990s, the musicians have been singing the praises of rims, which they refer to as "blades," "dubs" or simply by their inch count — "20s" or "24s," for example.

Lil' Troy: "Wanna be a baller, shot caller, 20-inch blades, on the Impala."

50 Cent: "My Bentley GT got smoke gray rims."

In the video for "Ridin' Spinners," twirling chrome wheels are shown in nearly every frame, even more so than the women. Members of the group, Three 6 Mafia, gush over their wheels: "See them thangs shinin', sparkin' like a diamond!"

As car-accessory aficionados know, the trend even has a Minnesota connection: Timberwolves guard Latrell Sprewell is a rims luminary. In 1998, he started a shop in San Gabriel, Calif., that specializes in installing premium wheels and other automotive fashion statements. In fact, "spinners" — rims that rotate even after the car has stopped — are often referred to as "Sprewells" because he was one of the first to sport them.

"The bigger the wheels, the better," said Vincent Pan, account executive of Sprewell Motor Sports.

Most recently, Sprewell has teamed with Dada Supreme to launch a new basketball sneaker with a miniature spinning wheel on the side. (And yes, "The Spree" shoe keeps spinning even after you've stopped walking.)

But aftermarket wheels are also attracting the mainstream. Mounting chrome is one of the easiest ways to personalize your Escalade or any other vehicle, said Keith Caughey, used car sales manager at Wally McCarthy's Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Hummer in Roseville.

"It's fun to give your car a new identity," he said. "These are very, very hot items."

That's why Oehrlein, of the Apple Valley dealership, isn't surprised by the audacity of the rim thieves. Her store is across the street from the city police department.

In the two cases in which entire Escalades were stolen from her lot — both were locked by lug nuts — the culprits first posed as customers, she said. After getting a chance to look at and start the cars, they apparently swapped the real keys with fakes and returned the bogus ones to the salespeople.

The Escalades vanished in the night.

Shortly afterward, they were found abandoned: one on a back road of North Minneapolis, and another in a cornfield south of Rosemount. Because of the locks, the wheels stayed put.

Police and car dealers say rims have occasionally been stolen from people's driveways. Authorities recommend parking in garages or well-lit areas and investing in locking lug nuts. They also suggest etching or marking the inside of the rims with a name or identifying number and getting the wheels insured.

Not only that, but "make sure the (lug nut) key is not in the automobile," said Caughey, of Roseville. "Then they break the windows and get the keys."

Walser Cadillac is hoping new security cameras will put a dent in the thieves' brazenness. When they took off with the DeVille wheels a few weeks ago, they did it in two steps: Apparently scared off on the first night, they removed only one wheel. But they came back the next night for the remaining three rims and an additional four off another DeVille DTS.

Worse yet, the loot wasn't even aftermarket; they were factory wheels.

"They weren't as choosy," Oehrlein said of her foes. "They'll take anything."

If there's a bright side to any of this, consider that it could be worse. Although rim thefts have died down in California, Pan, of Sprewell's business, has noticed more people getting carjacked for their spinners.

"The little petty crime — where you steal one chrome rim and come back the next day and steal the rest — that's kind of old," he said. "It's easier to take the whole car and call it a day."