Tail Light Theft
08-23-2009, 10:10 PM
#11
I agree...I'm thinking it's someone that busted theirs or what not and are nearby you. I can't see a body shop stealing crap off people's trucks/cars. Hell they get a discount on the parts and the insurance companies pay them for the price of the parts needed.
08-23-2009, 10:22 PM
#12
Senior Member
OK, I'm going to ask a dumb question now because my Lariat is due to show up the week of the 31st, and I can't wait.
I PM'd someone with a bed cover I like, asking what they did for a tailgate lock. He told me the truck came with one.
My dumb question, why do they put a lock on the tailgate with an open bed?
Maybe to keep the short people honest?
I PM'd someone with a bed cover I like, asking what they did for a tailgate lock. He told me the truck came with one.
My dumb question, why do they put a lock on the tailgate with an open bed?
Maybe to keep the short people honest?
08-23-2009, 11:21 PM
#16
Senior Member
do you have any idea how many tailgates are stolen every day....alot!
Keeping a 2 5/16 ball hitch plugged in all the time will cut down on the rear-ending. I found that out on my Expedition.
08-23-2009, 11:50 PM
#19
Senior Member
While it could have been a theft by either an individual or a body shop, the theft of vehicles for parts and or a single part off of a vehicle, has reached high levels in some regions, due to the high cost of some replacement late model auto parts. This is especially true for very high value vehicles, e.g., Mercedes and BMW. Many of these vehicles actually have a vinyl or plastic full VIN sticker affixed to each component body part (doors, hood, lift gate etc), similar to the VIN or partial VIN on large drive train components, such as engines and transmissions.
Here in CA, going back even ten or fifteen years ago, their was an epidemic of steering wheel thefts off of some foreign cars, strictly to obtain the air bag unit, some of which had a very high list price, $1000 +. Some less than honest auto body shops in some regions of the state would pay a crew to rip off this component and then raise their profit margins on the repairs.
And yes, a tailgate is an easy component target to easily lift off, maybe even the same color as the damaged recipient truck. On my previous F250, when it was less than a year old, I had gently backed into a dumpster at my son's school and scraped the paint and put a dent only about the size of a 'quarter' in the center right side. Two body shop estimates for repair and painting were each over $600. I traded it in with the dent.
Here in CA, going back even ten or fifteen years ago, their was an epidemic of steering wheel thefts off of some foreign cars, strictly to obtain the air bag unit, some of which had a very high list price, $1000 +. Some less than honest auto body shops in some regions of the state would pay a crew to rip off this component and then raise their profit margins on the repairs.
And yes, a tailgate is an easy component target to easily lift off, maybe even the same color as the damaged recipient truck. On my previous F250, when it was less than a year old, I had gently backed into a dumpster at my son's school and scraped the paint and put a dent only about the size of a 'quarter' in the center right side. Two body shop estimates for repair and painting were each over $600. I traded it in with the dent.
08-23-2009, 11:54 PM
#20
Yeah and now the hot item is stealing catalytic converters for the platinum, palladium, and rhodium inside. i know that local yard here requires your driver's license and they itemize everything you bring in