How effective are these things? In my uneducated view, I just see thieves giggling as they are taking them off of your car to steal your wheels.

As anything anti theft, it's a deterrent and that's it.

Anything that adds time and/or effort over the next guy will get you passed up by a thief... unless they specifically want that particular object.

For example: door locks don't do much, but thrives in parking lots will just jiggle handles until a door opens. If the door is locked, they move on.

They are not effective at all. I lost the key to my lug nuts on an 06 Golf. Pound an impact socket onto the nut and it comes off easy. I replaced them with regular lugs after that....

The best deterrent is to not have wheels worth stealing.

This is just a poorly masked humble brag about how the OP has more cars than spaces in his garage forcing him to park one of his many vehicles in the drive way!

They're great until the key strips out on the side of the road while trying to change a flat tire. You'll change them all out to regular lugs after the first time that happens

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Pound an impact socket onto the nut and it comes off easy.

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That's the deterrent.

RThorp said:

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This is just a poorly masked humble brag about how the OP has more cars than spaces in his garage forcing him to park one of his many vehicles in the drive way!

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I wish. A buddy had his wheels stolen off of his car inside his company's parking garage this week. Same happened to my FIL.

It seems that the thieves are prepared to quickly bypass this deterrent.

Smokedraw01 said:

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RThorp said:

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This is just a poorly masked humble brag about how the OP has more cars than spaces in his garage forcing him to park one of his many vehicles in the drive way!

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I wish. A buddy had his wheels stolen off of his car inside his company's parking garage this week. Same happened to my FIL.

It seems that the thieves are prepared to quickly bypass this deterrent.

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Holy crap that's bold!

Buddy of mine had a company car stolen out of a random bay at sears by some stranger

My truck was stolen from a covered parking area attached to the back of our office building in the middle of the afternoon. (That sounds like a Ronnie Millsap song).

Look at the Gorilla wheel locks with the outer spinning shield. Bought a couple of sets based the board's recommendation. Yes, they can also be defeated, but it takes longer and requires louder banging.

powerbelly said:

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Pound an impact socket onto the nut and it comes off easy.

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That's the deterrent.

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Do you look around when you hear hammering in the middle of the afternoon?

For that matter, when is the last time you took notice of a car alarm? It's just a nuisance.

I always do.

I might be the exception though.