Wheel Heels: Brazen Thieves Steal the Tires off a Car on Caruso Street

Caruso Street isn’t exactly East St. Louis, so it was with quite a bit of surprise on Monday morning when Jim D’Orsi walked out of his two-story home adorned with white columns on his quiet residential street and found his daughter’s Honda Civic resting on cinder blocks – its tires and rims completely removed.

It wasn’t the kind of crime that D’Orsi, his neighborhood or Revere Police are accustomed to seeing, but it’s something that D’Orsi said might be the next wave of unbelievable crime in Revere.

Many in the neighborhood have endured numerous car breaks over the last few years, and that has become somewhat expected.

“First they were stealing the GPS systems and they got two of mine,” said D’Orsi. “Then they were taking the manhole covers right off the street. Now this? Is this what they’re going to do now? If so, I want to know where the police were all night? This took time to do and you want to tell me that there was no one driving by to see it happen? City services here are awful and the police leadership needs to do something more than they’re doing.”

The outrageous theft of all four wheels took place while the family slept Sunday night, and no one in the neighborhood heard anything. D’Orsi said they were sleeping just 20 yards away from where the car was parked on the street and they heard nothing either.

D’Orsi said there was nothing special about the rims, other than the fact that standard Honda rims are made of aluminum alloy. He also said that the tires were all new.

All day Monday, the car sat on the street in front of D’Orsi’s home balanced on four cinder blocks placed in the middle that were used like a lever – or fulcrum – and then left behind.

Only the bare wheel drum and cavernous empty wheel wells were showing.

D’Orsi said that when he contacted police he was a bit outraged, and they told him that they only had three patrols in the City Sunday night – as they were severely short-staffed.

Revere Police were not available this week to comment on D’Orsi’s matter, but a police report has been filed.

To make matters worse, D’Orsi said he contacted the Mayor’s Office to try and get some satisfaction. He said he was told by a worker in that office to wait until January and talk with the new administration.

“I’ve lived in Revere all my life and in this house 15 years,” he said. “This isn’t a ghetto here. When we considered moving out of Revere, my kids convinced us to stay and we moved here to this house. This is my third house in Revere. My children are adults and I have grandchildren now. We were going to stay here until we retired in a few years – then maybe move south. We didn’t move to Middleton years ago like everyone else. We stayed here, but I don’t know if I’m sticking around for this kind of stuff. If this is what Revere is about now; that someone can do this kind of thing and get away with it while we sleep, then I don’t think I want to be here for it. I’m boiling at this point.”

City Councillor Charlie Patch said he was aware of the incident and is looking into it. He said many cars have wheel locks nowadays and he’s surprised that D’Orsi’s Honda did not have such locks.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in as long as I’ve been around here,” said Patch.