Albertan vacationers in Penticton say a lug nut was stolen from their car and others loosened

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Another couple visiting from Alberta says they found their lug nuts loosened on one of their tires and one missing when visiting Penticton Monday. 

“My wife gets super paranoid and she had heard in the news I think a couple weeks ago about [it happening] to somebody traveling back.”

Many instances have been reported lately of people's tires coming off, mainly drivers with out-of-province license plates.

Kris Roberts brought his torque wrench with him to give his wife peace of mind, not expecting to actually have to use it when regularly checking his tires. 

“The likelihood of that happening has got to be slim to none,” Roberts said. 

The couple say they made sure their lug nuts were on tight before they left and daily when visiting. 

When they came back to their car parked down at the Empire Motel near Skaha Lake on Monday morning, that's when the front tires were missing a lug nut and the rest of them were loosened. 

“I was doing the walk around and saw the lug nut was missing,” Roberts said.

“I didn’t think that this would actually really happen, I was more bringing the torque wrench to prove a point.”

Roberts was able to purchase another lug nut to fit onto his car before the trip home.

“At least we were prepared for the situation and nothing bad happened,” Roberts said. 

He also routinely does the maintenance on the family vehicles and has even taken time to build cars, adding that it was pretty clear someone had tampered with the car. 

“I do all our maintenance so I do know that a lug nut, one individual is not just going to come off all the way like that. It would take time and the wheel would be wobbling, it’s noisy. It definitely seemed suspicious.”

However this didn’t dampen his view of Penticton or traveling to BC.

“I believe that this is more than likely not the consensus of the majority of the people there that would do something like that. No matter where you go or what you do, there’s always some idiot.”

Roberts just wanted to make sure that people know what to do to be safe. 

“People should maybe just be careful, the last thing you want to see is somebody get hurt or something bad to happen. Losing a tire as you’re driving can be very dangerous.”