SAN ANTONIO — Neighbors at a north-side apartment complex are on high alert.
Thursday morning, a car was found on cinder blocks again. The wheels were stolen.
But this time, the suspected crooks were caught on camera.
KENS 5 met two residents whose cars were targeted. If finding their vehicle on bricks wasn't shocking enough, it's the fact that the criminals went after their cars. They say what they drive isn't a common target for wheel thefts -- or so they thought.
"I've actually gotten to know and become friends with our neighbors because of this," said one neighbor, whose wheels were stolen late last month.
These incidents are happening inside the Escalante apartment complex. It's a gated community off West Bitters near Blanco.
"I know it's been happening at least three times since I've been here and I've only been here since July," said the neighbor, who spoke with KENS 5 under condition of anonymity.
Neighbors tell us the wheel thefts are happening mostly at the back of the complex.
What's odd to residents is which cars are being targeted.
"I've heard of the Hyundai and Kias notoriously being messed with. I've never heard of a Mazda being messed with," said the neighbor, who immediately installed a security camera pointing toward the parking lot. "Thankfully I had comprehensive insurance, so I only had to pay the $500 deductible. My insurance had to pay $4,000...I could not have paid for it out of pocket."
At 2:18 a.m. Thursday, their security camera caught the suspected criminals.
"Until we got the camera footage that I submitted, no one had any idea who it was, how it was happening, their M.O., when they came or anything like that," said the neighbor, who moved to Escalante last summer to escape crime at a previous apartment complex.
On surveillance, you can see the suspects pull into a parking spot before one person gets out and starts to take the tires from the vehicle in the next spot.
"You can actually see movement around the car when another car comes down and that [suspect] goes to hide," the neighbor explained. "Sometimes you hear about when wheel thefts happen and it's really quick and organized and they're in and out in two minutes, but this was pretty slow."
Surveillance caught four wheels being stolen again. This time, another neighbor's RAV4 was targeted.
"Nothing really special about the vehicle, the wheels or the tires," the owner said, also interviewing under condition of anonymity.
When he towed the RAV4 to the shop, he said even the mechanics were perplexed.
"They say these types of crimes normally focus on trucks, Jeeps, muscle cars like Camaros and Chargers," he explained. "I was the first of my kind to actually come in there."
He says he had to dip into an emergency fund to replace his tires. He said the shop threw in complimentary wheel locks.
"I actually covered about $1,700 for tires, wheels and tire pressure monitor," he said.
He's lived at the Escalante apartments for three years. He says the crime has progressively gotten worse.
"This one has had issues in the recent past where the gates will be ajar or open and sometimes they'll capitalize on that," he explained. "Since the event, I've been a little more paranoid falling asleep. My fiancée who also lives here with me is very afraid because she believes she may be next."
After filing the police report Thursday morning, the neighbor said he talked to an employee at the front office about his stolen wheels.
"She initially told me that this is the first time that this has happened," he said. "It was, 'Since you were the first instance, we need more recorded instances before we start initiating any security or protection measures for our residents.'"
San Antonio Police say within the last year, they had 17 calls for service at the Escalante apartments. Six calls were for stolen vehicles, 11 were for other thefts.
"Why here? Why us? Why come for us? There's other ways to make ends-meet outside of taking people's stuff," said the neighbor.
We asked San Antonio police for advice on how all members of the public can protect themselves from this type of crime. They said, "Citizens are encouraged to speak to the property manager about investments that can be made to keep these events from occurring. Purchase wheel locks to deter theft of property."
Both neighbors KENS 5 interviewed had already followed police advice. KENS 5 left two messages at the Escalante front office, along with leaving multiple written messages for parent property company Willow Bridge. We're waiting to hear back.
"The best measure we'd hope to take is leave this area," said the neighbor. "I don't think we'd have a chance to improve what's already broken here."