I feel ya! My Thule crossbars, podiums and Thule Hull-a-Port Aero kayak rack were stolen too… feet and J-hooks were all locked. Brand freaking new!! Beyond angry
Except they don’t.
I hope the COVID-related high demand and low supply of outdoor goods does not include rack systems!
Be careful. If the OP’s feet and towers are like my old Yakima setup, the best thing is to remove them and the bars/cradles unless you are actually transporting the kayak. Leaving the rack on out of convenience doesn’t cut it. YOU, the working person who earned the cash to buy it, might think your time is too precious to remove easy targets, but guaranteed there are thousands of people who think time spent stealing is easier than time spent EARNING legitimately. Don’t give them the opportunity to take what’s yours.
I even remove the foam blocks from my trailer when the boat is not actually on them. Religiously, every time I paddle. Just too easy for someone to pull them off, and the ones I have are not being made anymore, to make things worse. Besides, gusty winds might be strong enough to pull them off without a boat sitting on them.
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Look on craigslist maybe you can buy them back cheap. No sense stealing if you can’t sell it. Only if you use it.
Leave an empty pistol holster on your dash.
Empty pistol holster… High intelligence here, folks
Guess you’re having another bad night? Lose your meds again ? 
Nope. I am good. Just in awe
Glad for you nite nite.
High demand for kayaks leads to high demand for racks.
I use to leave my Yakima’s on. Now I just pop them off and hang in the garage. Twelve years they still look great with a little care. That’s why I like good name brands. Bought a yakima bike rack and it works great. Quality pays in long run.
Stuff is pricy now to buy repeatedly. Mark it in a non obvious way.
Paint them yellow or some other highly visible color or pattern. No thief is going to steal something unique and few are going to go through the effort to repaint them again if there are other racks that are easier to steal. I also like the idea of engraving your name and phone number on them.
Never heard of this problem around the Chesapeake Bay area. Unless they are stealing them for themselves, not sure how they would resell them without a public listing. It’s not like they would stand on a street corner and offer them to strangers.
At one time, racks were highly auto make and model specific. Now that the manufacturers have come up with more universal mounting systems, I suppose that the racks are more easily resold or used on different vehicles.
My DIY cross bars (black) I made from PT 2x4s the long extensions I put on and off are unpainted 2x4s.
I get a few chuckles but no one is going to rip them off. 
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Actually, some of us are old enough to remember when most cars had roof gutters and you could use the universal fit Quick ‘n’Easy clamps ($20 a pair) to make your own racks with pressure treated 2 by 4s. These were easy to remove by just levering the clamps, so you could take them off/put them on them quickly as needed. I made my set width adjustable so it fit on any size car roof. Served me for nearly 20 years until Chrysler and Volvo stopped putting gutters on minivans and wagons.
We need more car companies to build in hardware or secure mounting points to facilitate installation of decent roof racks. Considering how many of us haul sports gear on our vehicles this is a badly neglected customer base. It may be they worry about liability.
I think you are right it most likely is liability. I had a pair of those rain gutter bars years ago and used them for skis, camping gear and hauling building materials.
We just bought a new car and some had rails and some didn’t in the same model. The cheaper version didn’t have them. Some looked like you could add them and some didn’t and when I asked the sales guy if they could be added he said no. I also just added the clamp on bars to her rails and they went on pretty easy and seemed secure, but I don’t think I trust them anymore than I do my 2x4s. They do look a lot better and now I have to worry about someone helping themselves to them.
I always had good service out of the gutter-mount feet, both Yakima and Thule. Though I don’t miss the wind noise of the original bars. I have Thule Aerobars on my little SUV and Yakima CORE bars on my F-150 shell and they’re both silent at speed.
I suspect that a lot of this theft is feeding the scrap aluminum market. Build your own rack out of wood (like @bud16415) and I’ll bet it stays there forever.
Ok, LA was mentioned. Maybe it isn’t the racks but the places you’ve been.
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I hate theft.
It is a problem running rivers in California to leave vehicles at put ins and take out with out of state plates for several days. Now I like to leave them at campgrounds or private boat camps where vehicles can be watched.
Vehicles with rain gutters could be easily fit with inexpensive roof racks made with 2x4s. I have never been willing to buy the modern roof racks. I went to a canoe trailer many years ago. I will pay to have someone watch it.
With the price of lumber, I wouldnt bet that 2 PT 2x4’s wouldnt get stolen.
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Lumber is probably in even greater demand now than sports gear is. Never assume a thief would not want something.
Guarding…when I paddled around Flaming Gorge Res, I paid to leave the truck and trailer at a storage place right there. Chainlink fence around it, staff on hand. The gate was open during the day and locked at night. The fee to park it there was reasonable.