I was just in Hawaii for vacation with my family for about a week and came back home this past Saturday night. I woke up this morning at around 9AM, saw my 350Z on bricks...

The car was not broken into, but just my wheels were stolen. The wheels were Work Meister S1 3 piece in polished black with polished lips. The sizes were 18x8.5 and 18x9.5 with the offsets being mid to high +20s. Some of the "Work" logos on the face were lightly scratched away on some edges. All of the rivets had some browning around them due to daily wear and tear. I am located in the San Fernando Valley just outside of Northridge so if you have any information or spot these wheels in person and/or for sale, it would be greatly appreciated if it were forwarded to me.

Contact info:
Alex W.
alex.wong5@yahoo.com

Added information, we had Rays Engineering lug nuts on them (not the $400 formula type) and either the car had been scouted prior or they were just THAT good and took them off within minutes.

Finally, I would like to say that I have no respect whatsoever for people like this. These people belong in the same category as those who throw eggs, take keys to paint, or even write a message in the middle of a dusty hood. They were lucky they didnt get caught in the middle of the night, because both me and my father would not have hesitated to reach for one of our firearms. For all you current and/or future custom wheel owners, lock nuts for your wheels do not guarantee security.

 

 

sorry man...that really sucks. and right in front of your house too...

 

That sucks.

Anything else (description-wise) that you can let people know that will help ID the wheels, i.e. tire brand and size, any curb damaged, manufacture date/serial # on barrel sticker, etc.

 

that sucks man. those guys were very likely pros at this. didnt your alarm go off at least?

 

fck*n thieves!!

 

dam man that sucks ill keep an eye out for you!

 

The tires were Nittos, if I recall 245/40 and 275/40. No curb damage on any of the wheels. As for manufacturer dates and serial numbers, the wheels were bought second hand a LONG time ago from Takumi Project in Chatsworth and didnt bother writing them down.

The white Work logos on the faces were chipped away on the edges, but still VERY recognizable. All of the rivets had stains of brown surrounding them from regular brake dust and road use.

They only had a 2 hr window, I got home around 3PM and my neighbor knocked on my door at 5:30 to let me know the car was on bricks. The car had Rays lock nuts on em so Im guessing the car was being scoped out prior to the last night, also considering I was in Hawaii for the past two weeks on vacation and got back on Saturday. The alarm didnt go off at all. Also looking at the location of the bricks, these guys knew what they were doing considering theyre in the right spots on the car.

$3000 gone, just like that

 

keep an eye on cragslist

some people are that stupid, lets hope these guys are

 

fuuuuu that sucks man!

I was always so paranoid parking my car anywhere with the HREs on it. Gonna just sell them now I don't want to deal with something like this...

 

That sucks. I haven't seen the police report (if any?) for this, but hopefully this isn't a sign that thieves are getting bolder. I have been seeing less BFMV reports (smash and grab) in the area, so I was starting to think that things were getting better. I haven't been going to the Northridge mall since I keep getting reports for cars hit in the structures.

On a side note, someone told me about a couple of dudes who were part of an (Armenian?) ring that stole or broke into cars. The funny thing was that they set up a sting to try to catch one of them (they live in North Hills and targeted certain places near their home), but it didn't work because the guy was already in custody for something else.

Hopefully maybe a neighbor has a surveillance camera that might have caught a glimpse of the theft? Surprisingly we sometimes do get surveillance from a neighbor's property.

 

Might have a lead, someone messaged me from Club Lexus of a guy who posted some Work S1s for sale at only $800 with tires...super sketchy. When does anyone ever sell a set of Work S1s for that cheap?!?!

The picture of the wheels shows everything I described the wheels at, brake dust caked around the rivets, work wheel logo chipped away on the edges and the tires are pretty beefy vs being stretched.

If the tires match up to be my Nitto NT555 Extreme 245/40 and 285/35, I am going to follow up and pretend to be a buyer to see them in person. Once I confirm them as being my wheels, I am going to forward my information to the detective handling my case.

 

tann?

 

^^^LOL....I was thinking the same thing. I'm hoping that people finally realize that they're going to get nailed if they steal your sh*t. The interwebs is a powerful place.

 

ATTENTION: LOOK AT THIS PAGE!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1004...6265296809447/

How sketchy does this look...? Many things to notice here:
1) Sale says Work Equipt wheels
-- Theyre Work S1s
2) The picture shows many tells these could be my wheels
-- The Work logo on the face is chipped away on the edges, just as I had described.
-- There is a whole lot of rubber showing the tire sizes are pretty beefy (my specs were 18x8.5 18x9.5 with 245/40 285/35 Nitto NT555 Extreme tires. If you know your fitments, those are big tire specs for such small wheels, and the photo shows just that)
-- You can make out some of the orange stains and caked brake dust around the rivets.
-- You can almost make out the letters "Ex" from Extreme, and the tread pattern looks VERY similar to the 555 pattern.

Lastly, the picture was taken and posted "near Chatsworth". Chatsworth is literally 5 minutes away from my house. According to the author's (Eduardo) personal page, he is located in North Hollywood, which is only 20 minutes away.

 

damn those look like your wheels...meet the SOB and bring the detective with you!!! or better yet street justice lol..maybe not coz he knows where you live and what you drive! either way good luck man i hope you get them!

 

good luck man, hope you get these back

those do look like 555's. i had those on my TL for awhile. id get in contact with the detective asap

 

The guy posted his number on the page. I spoke to the detective and she said I cant prove theyre mine since I dont have any positive way of identifying them....WTF?!

I would go over there myself but I kind of want to avoid the confrontation considering they know where I live.....

What do you guys think I should do?

 

Well, the detective is correct. You can't prove that they're yours. It's not like each wheel has a ID # on them that you've recorded or have on file somewhere like a car's VIN.

That's why I asked earlier if there was a manufacturer sticker showing date/serial # you have written down/picture of/etc. to ID them.

Maybe go with a buddy (or two) to look. Pretend one of them is the buyer. If they look like yours, start asking questions like when he got them/how long he's had them, where he bought them from, etc. just to see what the background info is.

If you're really sure they are yours, confront the guy and then threaten to call the cops? Did you ask detective what you can do or who to proceed?

 

Well, it will be your word vs. theirs, which is true.
Are there any identifying factors that you can think of, that are NOT mentioned in the ad. basically, anything you can use to prove to the detective (or so that she can prove they are stolen, since I'm sure she believes you) that these are YOUR wheels? Something you couldn't have figured out by reading it in the ad?

J.

 

if anything, ask the detective to ask that person to show receipts to prove he bought them somewhere. thats the only thing I can think of. if he cant prove how he got them legally, you *might* have a shot.

 

Person could always say he got them used off eBay, Craigslist, some car forum, etc. which usually don't provide receipts.

 

I think the only way this is going to turn out well is ... well you're going to have to trick him. Hidden tape recorder, pull out a photo of your car on bricks suddenly, and warn him very angrily "look I want my goddamn wheels back NOW, or the police are going to get involved". If you can get any sort of admission on tape ( == the surprised reaction) then you are golden.

Hope you're in a state where recording audio is legal.

 

^^^Was thinking that too, but I figured the guy's immediate reaction will be WTF are you talking about and not give anything up and either attack you or try and take off.

 

I cant just go confront him myself, they know where I live. If I show up and demand my wheels back, whats to stop them from coming to my house and fucking up my Z, my TL or any other car I have?

 

you cant really. double edged sword. at this point, insurance should just take over. nothing you can do if there is no way for you to legally prove those are your wheels, even though you know beyond reasonable doubt that they are.

you're right, whats to stop them from screwing with you? unless you f*** with them first, then its a downhill slope from there and lots of headaches.

sorry man.

 

they stole your rims. those cowards. why didnt u get a set of quality wheel locks? how about your auto insurance? is it under coverage??

 

I did have a set of a quality locks on them...

Just found out insurance is going to reimburse me for MSRP of stock wheels as well as tires and lug nuts. About $2800...but its the principle of someone stealing that bugs the shit out of me

 

^^^Ummm...that works out VERY well. for that much money, you can have your pick of any number of black market wheels on acurazine...as a matter of fact, take a look at those LINEA CORSE ones...the OP seems to be getting antsy and his last offer was $1300 OBO.

I wish I didn't believe in Karma. I'd have Majofo find out where the fk face lives and go pour paint stripper on his entire family's cars and dog.

 

You do realize that they make wheel lock removal tool kits, right? You can walk right into a Sears and buy one.

 

Thanks for the tip but I dont do rep wheels. Already picked up a set of Work VSXX 19x10.5 19x11.5 in burning black for $2500, so less the $500 deductible from insurance, I only lost about $200 on this whole debacle...

Im still a little pissed though...my buddies and I are figuring something out right now

 

buy them back for the $800

 

Oh...my bad...
probably why got you in this debacle to begin with. baller wheels.

I would have taken the money and replaced with something more cost effective and put in savings.

What exactly are you and your friends "planning"?

 

i down to help if u need me ..im ex military police and i have no problem with breaking someones face that deserves it...just hit me up if u need me 240-477-0583 im n north hollywood

 

dude... those are your wheels..

personally, id fuck up their car.. put a potato in the exhaust tip or something..

as far as they know.. they think they got away.. they dont know you know... keep it that way...

id find a couple of buddies, find out where he is going and jump his ass for being a dumbfuck...

 

I'd show up with cash, confront them, and then demand the rims back.
Take TSXTeeCee with you...he sounds like he can man handle them all by himself.

 

Let's make it an az meet..... Lol

 

what might be an idea next time is to engrave a tiny, tiny mark somewhere hidden, probably in the barrel or behind one of the spokes for ID next time, perhaps even on the outside of the barrel (covered by a mounted tire)

 

lol..im down!!!

 

best idea ever