Some tires slashed, others stolen in Park Slope this past weekend

The poor fellow in this photo got a nasty surprise when he went to get his car Saturday morning on Prospect Park West, near Carroll St. During the night some thieves stole his wheels (on the Park side, so not to be seen). 

What does it cost to have new tires, rims and lug nuts delivered and installed on a weekend? I guess he’s lucky he wasn’t parked facing the other direction or he might have gotten in the car and tried to drive off without noticing the blocks. The Brooklyn Paper wrote a story this past November about wheel thefts trending upwards in Brooklyn, quoting police commander John Lewis: “These are not random thefts,” Lewis said. “There are crews that go around looking for these tires. And they’re very fast.”

What should be the punishment for such a crime?  Jail + 20 swings of a tire iron to their lug nuts would get my vote. 

[Ed Note: In similar news, we received a tip yesterday about a bunch of tire slashings on Fiske and Carroll. FiPS reader Alex writes]:

Just thought I'd give you guys a heads up. Someone came through Fiske and Carroll Street last night and slashed the tires of about a dozen cars. When I came out to walk the dog this morning I saw that a car across the street from my apartment (I live on Carroll) had a flat front driver's side tire. At first I thought maybe it was only a flat and nothing more. I walked up closer and saw the slash mark. My first thought was: lover's spat. I grew up in the South and slashed tires and keyed cars are rather common when it comes to relationship problems. Then I walked over to Fiske and I saw car after car with flattened tires. Some cars only on tire, but three or so with both tires slashed (it should be noted that all slashed tires were street side, no sidewalk side tires were slashed). I called the precinct (78 I think) and reported it to the operator. She said she'd have somebody come check it out.

I remembered a story a while back about some car damage coupled with some auto shops advertising (like business cards on windshields and whatnot) but I didn't see any of that walking around. And the cars were mainly on Fiske, only one on Carroll.

Not a great weekend for cars in Park Slope, eh?