Automotive theft has been on the rise in the U.S. for a few years now, but that particular type of crime isn’t just impacting the owners of those vehicles – rather, thieves have become increasing brash, stealing vehicles directly from automaker-owned lots and storage facilities, in fact. We’ve seen this happen on multiple occasions over the past couple of years, and now, a handful of Ford Raptor pickups have been stolen right after they were assembled, too.
According to Fox 2 Detroit, a grand total of 10 Ford Raptor pickups were stolen from a FoMoCo storage lot in Michigan, though the news didn’t specify what kind of Ford Raptor pickups they were. However, police say the vehicles were worth around $100k each, meaning that they could be Raptor Rs, at least. Regardless, five of those pickups have since been recovered – one ran out of gas on I-75, and four others were found later that day at a gas station, where police arrested four individuals as well.
“It looks like they drove through a cyclone fence to get access to Vreeland Road, and once they got on Vreeland Road, they made their way to the freeway,” said Woodhaven Police Chief Scott Fraczek. “Believe it or not, the keys are left in the vehicle. It’s an organized group that does something with these vehicles after the fact. I would think that they would put in a better effort to make sure they can’t get these high-dollar vehicles out of their lot.”
Of course, this is nothing new for Ford, which has dealt with a rash of similar thefts as of late. Those include a number of F-150 Raptor R thefts – with some having their engines and wheels/tires removed – regular F-150 Raptor models taken from Ford lots and even Roush Performance, as well as select Lincoln Aviator models and Ford Explorer SUVs residing at Chicago Assembly plant that were stolen from the source, too.
We’ll have more on these unique thefts soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
I don’t know why anyone would pay the exorbitant retail price for the Raptor or any FORD p-up…simply go to the staging lot(s) and steal one since it appears there is little to no deterrence to prevent anyone from doing so (SARCASM).
To be serious, now that we know FORD is leaving keys in them, I’m rooting for the next person injured, or the estate of anyone killed (including LEOs), in an incident arising from these stolen FORDS to sue the crap out of FORD for its negligence in allowing these continued thefts.
Don’t understand why FORD’S legal team/risk management team hasn’t put a stop to it. RCS
W H A T A J O K E!!! Now the Customer’s are further Screwed!!
How does this keep happening? Has Ford not heard of SECURITY GUARDS?
Ford doing Ford things. These thefts keep happening, but they aren’t doing anything to improve on the security of the lots to prevent them.
OH let’s just leave the keys inside these $100K trucks and then when some finally make it to dealerships, there aren’t as many as there should be, so the dealerships will add a mark up.
Why not spend a little money and build an actual secured storage lot to prevent these things from happening, so these vehicles can make it to the dealerships to be sold to customers? Crazy idea.
Same thing here at dodge dealships. Trucks leaving weekly and nobody cares. A stole truck is a sold truck is the mentality.
No surprise here, nothing that Ford does is right, from excessive recalls to Alfa Romeo quality/reliability isuues and now thefts from a Ford storage facility.