Thieves steal tires off truck parked in Westwood overnight
A man working in Winnipeg woke to find thieves stole the tires right off of his truck Wednesday morning.
“I got up this morning to go to work, and I walked outside in total disbelief. There my truck is, sitting up on four concrete blocks. All the wheels are missing, and I just went, ‘Who would do something like this?’” said Scott Benson.
Benson was staying with family on Racquette Street in Westwood. The garage and driveway were being used so he parked on nearby Haultain Crescent, with the truck still in full view.
“I just park on the street, which I thought would be OK and has been OK up until now, but I guess I’ve been scoped out. Somebody wants what I have more than I do,” said Benson.
Thieves made off with Benson’s 35-inch mud tires and 20-inch rims brought in from the United States – altogether worth about $4,000.
Ed Sul lives nearby and said he saw a truck parked next to Benson’s early Wednesday morning but wasn’t sure what was happening.
“It’s kind of weird seeing someone parked beside a truck at 2:30 a.m., quarter to 3 a.m.,” said Sul.
Sul gets up early during the week, around 2:15 a.m., so he can drive his son-in-law to work. He said the white Mazda was parked nearby around 3 a.m.
"I came down Racquette [Street] … and was turning on to Haultain Crescent, and there was a little white Mazda half-ton there. Never thought anything of it at first, until I pulled into the back lane here,” said Sul. “I noticed two of the tires were off this big black truck."
When he realized what was happening, Sul said tried to follow the thieves, but they sped off.
The truck was parked under a street light, but Sul said the light flickers in and out and was completely off when the thieves were taking the tires.
“I did hear from a neighbour that drove by this morning he … just wasn’t surprised. He said this has happened to four other people in the last month,” Benson said.
All the thieves left behind was a tire jack.
“Those people are taking a huge chance that someone is not going to drive by in that five minutes or however long it takes them,” said Winnipeg police Const. Eric Hofley. “I expect these people that are doing it do have it down to a science and can get those cars in the air and those tires off quickly.”
Hofley said police are investigating the theft.
As for Benson, he’s been left without a truck to do work in.
“It’s tough. I’m running my own business and all of a sudden I’m down a vehicle first thing in the morning,” he said. “It’s a huge inconvenience.”
