COURT RECORDS ARIZONA FREE

How can Ford leave trucks out with keys in them in 2023? Why don't they have better security?' Brown told the Free Press. 'I'm supposed to lock up my cars and have security cameras. A Ford customer was notified by law enforcement that the truck he purchased was stolen.Īs a result of these thefts, small family-owned auto dealers and title companies, as well as national vehicle and financial entities, including AutoNation, say they've been swindled. An auto auction house found out when police came to collect stolen vehicles the auction house had processed with clean titles. One woman learned of the problem when her dealership was raided by armed police. Police reports indicated that Ford was not alerted by any security or tracking system when its vehicles went missing. In some incidents the Free Press reviewed, the vehicle had changed hands four times prior to being discovered as stolen.Ī Phoenix police investigation led to the seizure of the 14 Ford F-150 vehicles and a report to Ford that possible stolen vehicles had been recovered, but the automaker was asked to confirm. Then the vehicle has the apparent legitimacy to go into the consumer pipeline through sales to various car dealers or individuals. Then someone submits a stolen Georgia title filled out with the Ford vehicle information and gets a new title from an actual title company. How it all worksĪ thief takes a vehicle from a holding lot, which is managed by Ford or the automaker's partners, and drives it to metro Phoenix. As protocol, they run security checks through a national computer system to verify legitimate transactions when buying, selling and titling vehicles. When stolen vehicles are not reported stolen, title companies, auction houses and car dealers are not alerted and have no idea.

Police reports in Michigan and Arizona chronicle a bizarre web of activity showing how a cache of blank vehicle titles stolen in Georgia in 2007 was used to get stolen pickups quickly sold with clean titles. Pickup odometers reflected miles traveled between Michigan and Arizona, according to police and court records. The pickups were driven off the lots to the Phoenix area to be sold to unsuspecting buyers, according to fuel and toll receipts provided to the Detroit Free Press. Police in at least two states have learned that Ford or its partners running the lots have failed to report the vehicles stolen for weeks, months or ever. However, police reports document a lack of surveillance video and vehicles parked with keys inside. How the trucks disappeared remains a mystery. It all began when an estimated $1 million in pickups were stolen off lots from metro Detroit between mid-October and mid-December.

The problems center on 14 such vehicles stolen late last year in metro Detroit that mostly ended up in Arizona, but a trove of police documents and court records, along with a private investigator, suggests the overall scheme could be bigger, ensnaring unwitting victims and prompting criminal probes and lawsuits. A string of new Ford F-150s stolen directly from holding lots in recent months has triggered a cascade of misfortune for customers, dealers, title companies and others across the Western United States, the USA TODAY Network has learned.

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