By Seth Daniel
The Boston Police Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) has issued a bulletin on motor vehicle larcenies this week, warning that the South End has become a hot spot for car breaks and also for tires being stolen off of certain vehicles.
The BRIC alert indicated that over the past three months there have been a number of motor vehicle larcenies in the South End, shifting the usual hot spot from the Back Bay to the South End area – particularly in the Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue nexus.
During that three month period, 39 of 160 incidents in the entire D-4 area came in the South End hot spot, which amounts to 24 percent of all such crimes.
The usual hot spot in D-4 is at Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue in the Back Bay. During the same three-month period, there were just 32 incidents, which was 20 percent.
Police reported mostly these were breaks that did not use force, though some were described as using forced entry by prying open doors or breaking windows.
The typical result has been stolen radios, stereo equipment and items in the vehicle.
However, the more troubling matter was that there have been multiple incidents of cars having all four wheels removed and stolen, with the car left on cinder blocks or simply left on the ground.
Such a theft causes major disruptions, and also can severely damage the car.
In September, Union Park Neighborhood Association put out an alert for this type of crime – as two or three incidents happened in a short period of time. Those thefts typically focus on Honda vehicles.
One way to prevent this is to buy locking lug nuts or some type of security device to keep thieves from being able to remove them without some trouble.
Such crimes are becoming more common across the country as certain alloy wheels on factory vehicles have become popular on the black market for their durability and their ability to fit on multiple makes of vehicles.
There were no suspects identified in the police bulletin.