Wheels stolen while at State Fair

Friday, October 19, 2012

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nc state fair, wake county, troubleshooter, diane wilson

Diane Wilson
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RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A man spent the day at the State Fair, only to come back to his truck without a way of getting home.

While Willie Henderson was enjoying the day at the fair, someone took the tires off his truck as it sat in a nearby parking lot.

"They jacked it up, took my tires off, probably put them in the back of their truck, put two blocks on the outside, and on the front side. If you were to come down like you were coming down from the State Fair they staged it as like you had a flat tire," Willie said.

Willie took advantage of the free fair parking and parked in lot C, which is right next to Carter Finley Stadium. Willie and his wife parked their truck in the lot around noon and came back to the lot at 4:30 p.m.

"I see my truck is leaning a little bit and I'm like it's just a flat tire, I can fix that. I walked up on it, and I said 'Oh my god, there's two flat tires.' Then she runs around the other side and she says, 'Baby it's sitting on blocks,'" Willie said.

The thieves took everything -- tires, rims, and lug nuts -- all worth more than $5,000.

"It's terrible you go have fun and then this happens to you," Willie said.

And it happened in broad daylight with vehicles parked all around Willie's truck.

"Maybe someone saw it, but it looks like you're changing a tire," Willie said. "That's why they probably put these two tires on the other side."

I checked with authorities who patrol the area around the State Fairgrounds, and they said they weren't aware of any other thefts like this. They warned people to always be on the lookout for this as it happens in the matter of minutes.