F-Series Trucks Popular with Thieves in San Antonio
F-150 and Super Duty trucks among top five trucks stolen in the south-central Texas city, meaning extra vigilance for owners.
No matter what we do with our Ford trucks and SUVs, they are, at the heart of the matter, designed to do hard work. Any task you can throw at it — whether it’s hauling lumber or engine blocks, or pulling horse trailers or boats — it’ll handle without breaking a sweat, or a piston rod.
And because they are such useful tools, it means thieves have plenty of uses for them, especially if they don’t have to buy one off the lot. San Antonio, Texas ABC affiliate KSAT-TV reports the F-150 and Super Duty trucks are very popular for thieves, prompting the need for extra vigilance for owners.
“Auto crimes investigators with the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said Dodge Ram 1500s, Ford [F-150s, F-250s, and F-350s], and Chevy Silverados are the top five most-stolen vehicles in San Antonio,” according to KSAT-TV.
To drive home the point, a doorbell camera captured a thief making off with one San Antonio couple’s 2004 F-250 SuperCrew “in broad daylight, right in front of the owner’s yard.” The couple was able to recover their truck three hours later at a gas station in the small town of Moore, but had to spend over $500 to fix the damage done.
“It is actually simple to go in there, bust the lock, start the truck. and you’re gone,” said Merrill Byrd, an alarm installer with Alamo Stereo and Upholstery.
The thefts are that easy to commit, per KSAT-TV, because most trucks use non-chipped keys to operate the vehicle, and most brands are required to have them on said trucks. Thus, owners will need to make up for what the factory didn’t add in the first place.
“Nowadays, anti-theft experts said that the best line of defense is an alarm system with a GPS device that works with a smartphone,” KSAT-TV says. Another deterrent is to have your VIN etched onto every single bit of glass, something the San Antonio Police Department is offering to do, which Detective Sandra McCormick says will make it more difficult “to part out these vehicles with the VIN number etched in several locations.”
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