by Melissa Bailey & Thomas MacMillan | Oct 17, 2013 1:50 pm

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Posted to: Legal Writes, Transportation, East Rock

After nighttime prowlers ripped the wheels off two Honda Fits, two East Rock neighbors pooled spare tires to help each other out of a jam—the latest in a wave of mysterious thefts.

The two East Rockers woke up Thursday morning to find their cars no longer had any wheels.

They were just the latest in a string of car owners who’ve lost their wheels to thieves.

The two neighbors live on Cottage Street and Livingston Street, about a block away from each other. The neighbors, a student and a mom at Worthington Hooker School, woke up Thursday to discover that thieves had stolen all four tires from their Honda Fits, which had been parked on the street.

The thefts were part of a pattern, according to police. Between six and nine Honda Fits have had their wheels stolen in the past month, according to police. Police theorized that the thieves may be targeting the wheels because the they are smaller than wheels on other modern cars; the price for smaller wheels, to be used on older cars, has gone up. Whatever the reason, the thefts seem to be part of a national trend.

Six of the thefts took place in East Rock, according to Lt. Kenny Blanchard, the neighborhood’s top cop. The thieves are working in the early morning, between 3 and 5 a.m.

Another Honda Fit had its wheels stolen Tuesday on Front Street in Fair Haven, according to Sgt. Herb Johnson, that neighborhood’s top cop.

Catherine McGuinness, of Livingston Street, was one of two East Rockers whose cars were hit early Thursday. She said her roommate woke her up at 3:30 a.m.

“The police are outside with your car!” her roommate told her.

Someone had spotted the thieves in progress and called the cops. By the time police came, the thieves had left. When she found her car, it was teetering on three points: a car jack, a rock, and the front bumper.

Police told her the car had to be towed because it was balancing precariously and could fall on a passerby, she said. That left her with a conundrum: How to tow a car with no tires?

Luckily—or rather, coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally—a neighbor around the corner found herself in the same position. The neighbor on Cottage Street’s Fit was also balancing on a rock and a jack.

Each neighbor had one spare tire. They decided to share the spares so that the towing company could roll their cars away.

McGuinness borrowed her neighbor’s spare first. Around noon, a crew from Unlimited Towing hauled her car away. McGuinness said she planned to lend her spare to her neighbor later that day so that she could do the same.

“Not really how I want to make connections with my neighbors, but a reasonable solution to the problem,” said McGuinness, who just moved to the neighborhood a few months ago.

Lisa Siedlarz, head of the SoHu (South of Humphrey) block watch, sent out several emails Thursday morning alerting neighbors to the thefts.

“There is a very simple solution to this,” she wrote: “Locking lug nuts,” which require a key to remove. “You can buy locking lug nuts from your car dealer, or Pep Boys, or AutoZone.” She said they cost around $25.

Blanchard said the thefts are happening between 3 and 5 a.m. He said he has tried shifting the district’s overnight patrol schedule to have more cops on to catch the thieves, to no avail. For now he advised neighbors to buy those lug-nut locks and keep eyes out for thieves.

The rock on the Cottage Street car had made a significant a dent in the body of the car.

A car hit on Oct. 8 on Eld Street was left up on bricks and jacks. The jacked cars are unsteady and present a danger to kids who might be be tempted to play near them, according to police.

Thieves also hit an Acura sedan in Wooster Square on Oct. 8, according to police.