Have you ever faced situation where you see your car a little tilted. Thats what happened to me in the morning. I found my car being tilted when I saw it from behind. The first thought that came thought, Have I parked it on some curb or something.
The surprise look I had when I went near and found out that a f**king wheel is missing. And I did highlight wheel because in day to day life when we change tires. It is the rubber part but not the wheel. The Wheel is the metal part on which we put the tire.
One thing was clear at the very moment that it was stolen and the thief's were good enough to not remove the jack ( the thing that lifts your car up, to change tires) to avoid making noise and more damage to the car.
Now that we know what has happened, now these are the things I did in the aftermath of the event.
- Property manager, Called the property manager (since I am in a rental unit) and informed her about the incident and requested her to see evidence in the security system.
- Cops, Searched for the area police station number (non-emergency one) not the 911 as the incident has happened and no one was hurt. The station gave me website details to file an online complaint as I did not have any suspect. So I completed the report and took a print out.
- Insurance, call your insurance company and inform them about the incident and ask how much they will cover. I have a deductible of $500, so I will be paying first $500 and rest will be covered by them (good thing).
- Service center, Call the service center and check if they have the part required to replace the stolen thing (wheel, tire, nuts 🔩 )and generally it is not available readily so it is better to place order to get it replaced.
Now back to my day, As the thieve(s) took the nuts 🔩 (very important). I could not use the spare tire and drive around. During my call with service center I have asked if I could get the nuts while placing the order for wheel and tire. Once I got a green light, I went there and got those nuts, just to find out my spare tire is not maintained and has ZERO tire pressure. So anyways I did put the spare tire on and called AAA and requested roadside assistance and got the air pressure filled.
Few learning.
- Park the car in a well lite area or a secure place (hindsight for sure).
- Maintain spare tire, in every 2–3 car service get it checked for tire pressure.
- In case of such incident, have the VIN number ready (it comes in handy to get the right wheel and tire for your car).
Hope this never happen to you but as per one study every year $1 million dollar worth of tires gets stolen so we never know these steps could come in handy.
Keep your car safe today 😐.
