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An Upper East Side man a wheel of whose BMW was stolen in October walked out of his apartment Tuesday morning to find a second one had been thieved from the car in almost the exact same spot.
George Gardner, 30, parked his ride in his neighborhood on E. 81st St. near First Ave. on Monday night, he told the Daily News.
Hours later, he discovered his 2019 BMW M4 jacked up off the ground and missing a wheel — again.
“He left the jack so it didn’t trigger the antitheft system,” Gardner surmised.
It was the second time in five months he went outside to find his car missing a wheel, which retails for about $1,400, in the neighborhood.
“I was just kind of sitting there stunned that this happened again,” said Gardner. “Then I’m waiting for the police and the officer noticed me. She was like, ‘I know you, this car is familiar.’”
The same cop responded to his call for help on Oct. 3, when the thief was caught on camera stealing Gardner’s wheel.
After another one went missing, Gardner again went searching for surveillance footage, which a superintendent at a nearby building provided him with.
As the frustrated man reviewed the video, he noticed the grainy shots of the thief’s getaway car appeared to match the one from the October larceny.
“The mannerisms look so familiar,” Gardner said. “I was like, that’s the guy, for sure.”
Gardner usually keeps his car at his parents’ northern New Jersey home, but since he’s mother’s health began to decline, he’s been keeping it outside his Upper East Side home, too, allowing him to make quick trips as needed.
“There are parts of the city where you think you didn’t get hit with a crime like this,” said Gardner, who lives in the posh neighborhood with his girlfriend.
He will have to fork over another $500 to his insurance company to replace the wheel — a hefty fee he paid just months earlier.
The NYPD last year cracked down on car thefts as reports of stolen vehicles surged citywide, The News previously reported.
Last month, there were 967 cars stolen off city streets, according to NYPD data released Tuesday. The figure marked a 13% downtick from February 2023, when 1111 car owners reported theft.
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