WASHINGTONVILLE -- When you've owned a garage for over thirty years like Harold DeGreen, you're bound to run into customers who have the same car troubles.
"There's parts laying there that's destroyed," said DeGreen.
Lately, he says a few cars from this area are coming to Washingtonville Garage with a serious issue, their wheels are loose and falling off.
"Those is studs, the lugnuts is gone," said DeGreen.
"I have had a few with loose lugnuts, yes, usually they are from over here. I've had four or five. This is number five like this."
"Five cars ain't no fluke," said Lauri DeJesus.
DeJesus has her SUV sitting in the garage right now.
This week, DeJesus noticed a thumping noise coming from her SUV.
She was on her way back from the grocery store when it happened. Her wheel fell off.
"He didn't even make it a foot and the left front dropped," said DeJesus, "This is where it was coming off."
DeJesus called a roadside service for help. That's when she found out.
"He looked, he says the studs are snapped. He said someone loosened your lug nuts. I was like, 'what?'." said DeJesus.|
"Someone is stealing rims and tires. We don't know who they are," said DeGreen.
The owner of the garage tells us he's suspicious because a few months ago several brand new tires were stolen from his garage and it's not the first time.
"Norm Jones was here in '06. I lost 38,000," said DeGreen.
As for DeJesus, she says tires and rims from the cars in her neighborhood have been stolen before but this is much worse.
"We could have been killed, easy, or killed someone else," said DeJesus.
DeJesus says she plans to reach out to state police after her SUV is back from the shop.