Tailgating a the Shops at Grand River?

By William Thornton -- The Birmingham News

Football season may be over, but another form of tailgating seems to be tak­ing place in the metro area.

At least eight law en­forcement agencies in Jef­ferson County have re­ported tailgates being stolen from trucks in at least 16 instances over the past two weeks, with most of the thefts occurring in retail parking lots.

In Hoover, there have been six tailgates stolen over the last two weeks, with two taken in Inver­ness and three from shop­ping centers in and around Riverchase. In Trussville, three were stolen in the past week. In Leeds, two were reported stolen on Jan. 8 at the Shops at Grand River, while another was taken that same day on Weaver Avenue. Police in Birmingham, Irondale, Mountain Brook and Ves­tavia Hills and the Jeffer­son County Sheriff's Office also reported tailgates taken.

Capt. Jim Coker, a Hoo­ver police spokesman, said tailgates are an easy target because they are relatively simple to detach from a truck and a valuable spare auto part, valued any­where from $500 to $2,000. Having this many tailgates stolen in such a short time period is unusual just for one city, let alone several, he said.

"It would seem logical that this is somebody sell­ing auto parts," Coker said. "What else can you do with a tailgate?"

Trussville Police Chief Don Sivley said he wasn't aware of the cases in other cities. "It's definitely something we're watching, though," Sivley said.

Coker said tailgate thieves are fairly easy to thwart -- just lock the tail­gate.

"That makes it much harder to steal, and they're not going to be able to sell or use a damaged tailgate," he said. Another tip Coker offered is for drivers to en­grave their vehicle identifi­cation number onto the tailgate so it can be traced if it is stolen and recovered.