Not that many years ago, alloy wheels were an option on most cars, and tended to get stolen. Now, nearly everything has alloys, so there is little market for stolen ones. But, we persist with locking nuts/bolts. Probably only useful if fancy aftermarket wheels are fitted.
Early Land Rover Discovery alloy wheels could be fitted to all older Land Rovers. When the Discovery became available on the company car fleet, and with a special deal, so many managers chose one. With the spare wheel mounted outside, on the back door, with no locking nuts, 20 disappeared overnight around Oxford. Happy days.
Back in the mid seventies, working in a Rover dealership, we arrived one morning to find a Dolomite Sprint had 'lost' its alloy wheels. Car was not retail, so some steels were found, and the car traded.
A fortnight later, an observant policeman spotted some oiks in a Ford Escort, with fancy alloys on it. Same policeman had stopped same oiks a fortnight before, and noted their tyres were all only just legal, now they had not just good tyres, but fancy wheels too. Having paid attention to 'theft' bulletins, he looked a little closer, and made an arrest. The weels were held as evidence, until after the trial, then returned to us, nearly 6 months later. They sat in storage for years before finding a home for them.
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