Immediately after my wheels were stolen, I filed a police report hoping that they would be able to help me. And for the next couple of days I began searching Craigslist every chance I could get, using very broad search word.. “rims.” After about a week and a half I came across an ad that hit very close to home. It was an ad for just 2 Falken tires that comes with rims, with specs that matched mine exactly, even down to the tread percentage. There weren’t very much details about the rims though, no pics, no brand, no specs--the ad only stated that they were black. But this was enough information for me to believe these were the exact pair of wheels that were stolen off my car.

I gave this information to the police, but after several days I hadn’t heard anything from them so I decided to take matters into my own hand. I kept an eye on the ad, and eventually they updated it with a phone number. I was able to borrow my cousin’s phone for the next few days, and through that I contacted the “seller.” He told me his name was Erick (for the sake of identify protection, I will not use his real name in this post, but he did give me his real name). We arranged to meet at a parking lot of a mall (one that was about 30 minutes away from my house where the wheels were stolen, to avoid any suspicion of him thinking it was me). When I arrived, I made a call to the local police department, told them my situation, and they dispatched an officer to where I was. The officer was pretty well hidden, I couldn’t even see where he was. We were all ready for this sting operation, but the “seller” flaked. He never showed, didn’t pick up my phone calls or reply to my texts. I figured I was wasting both my time and the officer’s, so I just told the officer he could go. It wasn’t until a few hours when the “seller” finally made contact with me, saying that he was busy with family. I tried to arrange another meeting, but this guy kept coming up with excuses..

I figured trying to contact him through phone about the wheels was a dead end, so I decided to take a different approach. I searched up his phone number into Craigslist, and found that he had several other ads posted. I emailed him using a fake email account about a pair of shoes that he had for sale, and he replied back. With this, I was able to find out his real email. I searched the email on Google, and came across his old Photobucket account. In there, I was able to find a picture of him and some girl who I fortunately was able to recognize, but did not know personally. I asked a mutual friend of that girl if they knew who that guy was, and sure enough they did. I was able to get first and last name for him and phone number as well. The first name I was given matched the name that “Erick” gave me, and the number matched the one listed in the ad. I tried looking up this guy on Facebook, but was told that he had deactivated his account. I tried to figure out as much information about this guy as possible.. and coincidentally the girl who I recognized in the photo had a sister who so happened to be in my summer class that I am currently enrolled in. Turns out that “Erick” was the girl-in-the-photo’s ex boyfriend, and that they were no longer on good terms. The sister was able to give some information about “Erick,” telling me this guy was some 18 year-old punk who was known for stealing rims, shoes, and car parts. I was told that he had even broken into his best friend’s house to steal a couple pairs of his shoes. She also gave me the general area of where he lived, but I was not given an exact address. In one of “Erick’s” other Craigslist ad, there was a picture of a bronze Mercedes C230 and a blue Honda Civic SI (2006+), sitting in a driveway, with two houses visible in the back. Using Google Maps Streetview, I started looking in that area for houses that matched the two in the photo, and was eventually able to find two houses that matched perfectly. All I had to do know was turn the Streetview around and I would be looking at “Erick’s” house. Doing so, I was able to get his exact address. I also downloaded the picture of the 2 cars, and asked some close friends if anyone recognized them. Somebody did, and I was given his Facebook account which had a photo of himself along with the exact same bronze Mercedes. I had a mutual friend with him on Facebook, so I asked if I could log into my friend’s account to check out this guy’s profile. On his Facebook wall, there were quite a few photos of his Mercedes and the blue Honda Civic together. In the photos, the owner of the Civic was tagged—so I got his information. He had some of his stuff public on Facebook, so I scrolled down his “wall” and got his phone number. (Something I forgot to mention earlier was that in “Erick’s” Craigslist ads, he would sometimes interchange the phone number listed with his and some other number). Turns out that the blue Honda civic owner’s number was an exact match the other number on Craigslist. It was at this point when I realized these 3 guys (Erick, the Civic owner, and the Mercedes owner) were possibly in on the theft of my wheels. But none of this was enough evidence to get the police involved. I wanted to push for a search warrant, but the only way that could have been done was to prove somehow that these guys indeed have my wheels, or proof of them caught in the action of them stealing my rims. I didn’t have either of those, so the law was out of the equation for now.

I eventually decided to confront this “Erick,” at the doorstep of his own home. I went with a friend in broad daylight (12:30pm), knocked on his door and both “Erick” and the bronze Mercedes owner came to the door. The timing was so perfect.. for some reason there were 3 cop cars and a firetruck outside his house (they were there for some unrelated event) when I was at his doorstep. “Erick” and the Mercedes owner probably thought they came with me. My friend and I started interrogating both Erick and the Mercedes guy about my wheels. I told them that I knew they were involved with the theft, and that I have police investigating the case. I kept asking them where my rims were, but they would avoid the question by claiming that they didn’t have them. I then told them that if I get my get wheels back by the end of the night without any trouble, I would not get the cops involved, and that they would not hear from me again. It was simple. It wasn’t until then when they admitted that they one of their buddies did indeed have the wheels, and said they will get it back to me by 11pm. We exchanged numbers, and I told them I wanted to meet them publically at a nearby Wal-Mart at 10:30pm. They agreed—everything was looking good. But when the time came and I was at Wal-Mart, I gave Erick a call asking if he was there yet. He said that he would not be able to make it, but claimed that my wheels were sitting at the side of his house ready for me to pick them up and that nobody was home except his step dad. I told him I didn’t want any of that bullshit, but he insisted that he would not be able to meet me at Wal-Mart and hung up shortly. I attempted to call him a few more times, but he failed to pick up his phone. I sent him a text telling him that if he does not pick up his phone, I will call the police. I called him three more times after the text, but he still did not pick up. The whole time at Wal-Mart, I was with 7 other guys, packing heat just in case. We decided to not call the police yet, but to go checkout his house instead. His street was very dark, no streetlights at all. We drove by at a casual speed, and didn’t see anything. I decided to drive further down the street, pass an intersection, turned my car around and parked. Turned my car off and sat there and watched Erick’s house. We noticed 2 or 3 guys pacing back and forth between a car, the street, and his house. This was way too sketchy for me to actually stop by the house and look around, so it was then when I called the cops. Told them the situation, and they dispatched an officer. When the officer arrived, he wasn’t actually informed on what was happening so we had to brief him with everything. I had friends in a different car as well, parked where they could see the exit of the neighborhood. During the time we spent briefing the officer, my friend parked in his car saw a slammed Honda Accord speeding out of the neighborhood with 6-8 guys in it. I can bet that it “Erick” and the Mercedes owner was riding in that car, fleeing because they most likely saw the cop roll through the neighborhood. After we had finished briefing the officer, he decided that would need back up in order to actually go to “Erick’s” house and check things out. When a second officer arrived, they both approached Erick’s house. They didn’t want me to go with them, so they had me stand at the end of the street. After several long minutes they finally waved for me to come by. Turns out my rims actually were sitting at the side of his house, and this was enough hard evidence to have “Erick” prosecuted. When I picked up the rims, I was able to take a quick look at the 3 guys that were pacing the streets earlier. 2 of them I did not recognize, but one of them was definitely the blue Civic Si owner. The cops did not make any arrests that night because they couldn’t find Erick himself. All the evidence leads towards him, so he’ll be the one getting prosecuted. I gave him a chance to just come clean.. give me my wheels back without any trouble and no cops would be involved. I gave him my word, but he insisted on playing games with me so now he’s getting what he truly deserves.

As of now I have no updates on whether or not they’ve actually caught Erick yet, but I can assure you that they’ll put a warrant on him. It’s a shame that I was not able to recover the tires, centercaps, valve covers, and that one of the rims were scratched up. Hopefully when they do find Erick, they’ll have him compensate me for my losses.