Two East Long Beach residents awake to find wheels stolen from their cars

Long Beach police are investigating a pair of unusual automobile thefts that happened late last week in the Stratford Square neighborhood.

Residents of a home in the 2800 block of Stanbridge Avenue and another in the 5300 block of E. 29th Street awoke Friday to find the wheels missing from their cars, said Sgt. Bradley Johnson, a police spokesman. The locations are about 0.2 miles apart.

Police believe the thefts happened oveight either late Thursday or early Friday, Johnson said.

The incident left one of the victims, Julie Shelton, shaken. The block she lives on is not being disclosed to protect her privacy.

Shelton didn’t discover the what happened until she went outside after her husband left for work. Her personal car was in the shop and she had a rental, a 2016 Toyota Camry, until repairs were complete.

“It’s a real scary thought,” she said. “Somebody took bricks from [my neighbor’s] front yard, carried them over and propped up my car.”

Shelton, who belongs to the online neighborhood watch group Next Door, said property crimes appear to be happening in her area almost every day. Usually the crimes are small — items are stolen out of cars or packages off porches, but occasionally there are more serious crimes like home burglaries.

“It was a real violation,” she said. “I was just shaking. It was almost surreal.”