Ford turns to stepped-up tech and cooperation with police to thwart F-150 pickup thieves

DETROIT AP Ford Motor Co has stepped up equipment in its popular F- pickup to combat the ever-evolving techniques car thieves have at their disposal It is the latest cat-and-mouse move that the automaker hopes will help customers avoid the costly and frustrating process that occurs when vehicles are swiped and includes a feature that won t allow an engine to start even if a key fob is in the pickup Motor car thefts not long ago have been on the decline in the U S after several years of increases Still the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated that more than vehicles were stolen in the U S in pegging losses at billion But thefts dropped during the first six months of compared with the same period in according to an analysis by the National Insurance Crime Bureau Ford s F- was in the top of bulk stolen models F- s have been the bestselling carriage for decades so there are a lot of them on the road announced Christian Moran Ford Secure general manager Thieves do like to go after pickup trucks They also like to go after the contents that are often in pickup trucks Oftentimes there are people who have thousands of dollars worth of tools and products in the back that are valuable above and beyond what the wagon is worth Ford s Stolen Motorcycle Services which was launched with the F- model year added a Start Inhibit feature that allows owners to disable an F- s engine from a smartphone by using the FordPass app This makes it impossible for a thief to start the pickup That was expanded in the model year to include the F- Super Duty pickup Ford plans to extend it to other vehicles in the model year The shield package comes with the purchase of a pickup and is included for one year once activated The cost after the first year is per month Equipment matching wits with thieves F- owners can receive alerts to their smartphones of expected thefts that include an unauthorized person entering their pickup whether doors are ajar and if the bicycle is moved or towed One of the strongest features of the prevention package is the coordination with police agencies Moran noted It works this way Once an owner realizes or is notified that their pickup has been stolen the owner is encouraged to call police and file a record The owner then contacts a Ford call center which confirms with police that a theft record was completed The call center coordinates efforts with police to use Start Inhibit to shut down the engine and to pinpoint where the pickup stopped Usually within an hour is when we try to work as hard as we can to get those vehicles commented Officer Ibrahim Kakish a member of the Detroit police commercial auto theft section The sooner we get the wagon the better The motorcycle is more likely to be intact Measure measures up thefts trending down Auto theft is lucrative as certain vehicles especially high-end and luxury models are targeted for resale Other stolen vehicles are used to commit crimes like carjackings and smash-and-grab robberies at jewelry liquor and other retail stores We used to say the bulk of the people stealing cars were joyriders stated Thomas Burke a retired New York City police detective and a current director with the Chesapeake Virginia-based International Association of Auto Theft Investigators There are very inadequate joyriders now Burke added It s all professional They steal them change the conveyance identification numbers and sell them Thieves seek out easy targets like key fobs left in vehicles They also break into a truck to reprogram its computer to accept another key Burke explained But it appears assurance measures are working In New York in we had cars stolen in one year Burke explained This year so far a little over have been stolen and that s out of more than million cars registered Motor motorcycle theft in Detroit decreased from in to last year according to the city s police department So far this year there have been fewer thefts than in We re finding out tactics that they re stealing vehicles and we work with companies to try to get that stopped Kakish explained Source