325 miles & someone stole my tire valve covers!

Sad. But at least they didn't steal the whole car.

 

I had those tire pressure ones on my Saab (cheap, aftermarket ones that show green or red, depending on the pressure) and mine were stolen too.

 

Not that it's right under any circumstance, but at least I can imagine I understand why someone would steal "fancy silver" tire valve covers.

What I have trouble wrapping my head around is someone stealing them, and then going to the trouble of replacing with plain black ones.

That's strange indeed.

 

If you reinstall them see if your husband can run a thin copper wire from the valve cover to the main connect for the traction battery. Then you can identify the potential thief based on the body laying next to the car.

 

Or you can get them real tight by snugging them down with a pair of pliers. That way they can't just unscrew them with thier fingers. Works most of time.

 

I have had two sets of special valve covers removed from my cars over the years. I think this is likely just a crime of opportunity - they are there, noone's around so I'll do it - so the plier trick is a good idea to stop this. Just remember to keep a cheap pair of pliers in the trunk so you can remove the valve cover to add air when needed.

 

I had a window decal stolen once! I mean, c'mon! It's three bucks!

 

That is the work of a young thief on a bicycle. I lost mine at church. Only two of them. That is why you got two replaced. In the hope you might not notice. Look at school for someone riding a two wheeler with bright shiny valve caps.

 

That's a great opinion - even bicycle riders want to do it in style....

I thought that since it is a crime of "opportunity" that the thief was somehow shielded on the drivers side from sight so they felt it was "safe" to steal them. They may come back for the other 2 if your car is parked where they can get them without being seen?

Some school systems have video camera monitoring systems - especially in the parking lots - does yours? If so, then - since it IS a crime - they should be willing to rewind the tape (?) and see what happened.

Re: Penny's Dads comment -- that's just "inspired"!!

 

My sister bought me really nice set for my Volvo 960 years ago and I never put them on for this reason. I don't think they would last a month before someone would steal them.

 

Just buy a package of the cheap black plastic ones. They work just as well, are hardly ever stolen, and have the advantage of reducing unsprung weight.

 

I know what you are talking about when you think about the dollars. But the issue is someone is messing with your car. That's what happened to me. One chrome valve stem stolen, no big deal. The next time someone messed with my car they keyed the entire left side of the vehicle with a deep scored scratch. Now it was $750 to repair.

 

I once caught an old guy stealing one of my aluminium valve caps, I'd got free with a magazine, off a previous car of mine. After calling him a pathetic loser and embarassing him in front of everybody in the car park I took off the other three and gave them to him. I thought if a guy of his age, who should know better, needed to steal worthless items like valve caps them maybe he needed them more than I did.:mmph:
I was going to take them off anyhow due to the problems of dis-similar metals causing corrosion a colleague had had with his car. He ended up tearing two of his valve stems out trying to remove his aluminium caps with pliers when they had siezed on.

 

They were trying to be thoughtful, but the cops drove by before they could complete the job so they had to run. They would have returned to finish the job, but they accidentally dropped the remaining two black covers while running.

 

It's probably a lot safer to go after valve cap thieves than drug smugglers.