Police have found a number of Ford F-150 pickups that were stolen last year from Ford Motor Co. holding lots in Michigan at dealerships and an auto auction in Arizona.
The owners of Cascio Motors, a used-vehicle store in Scottsdale, told the Detroit Free Press that officers raided the business in December and took four trucks. The store paid an average of $65,000 for each of the pickups, which it did not realize were stolen because Ford had not reported them missing.
“I’m out $300,000, and my trucks have been impounded,” Cascio co-owner Addison Brown told the Free Press. “When you read through the police reports, you can see that this case was worked backwards. Ford did not initially report trucks stolen. … If Ford would have done an inventory check once a week, let’s say, and noticed cars were missing, they would’ve had to report them stolen, and those reports pop up everywhere — on a title search, on Carfax.”
It’s not clear how the pickups disappeared in Michigan. Police believe some were unlocked with the keys inside. It appears they were driven to Arizona and given clean titles using blank forms that had been stolen from Georgia in 2007.
A report from an Arizona Department of Transportation detective said Ford believes it is losing about seven vehicles a week to theft.
At least one title company in Phoenix has stopped titling 2022 and 2023 F-150s after getting burned on a truck it processed in November.
“We get notification that we’re being sued by a dealer saying they bought the brand-new pickup truck based on our information, that we’re in cahoots with however this vehicle is stolen,” Michael Lorette, owner of Prompt Titles & Registrations, told the Free Press. “If it had come up stolen in the system, being reported stolen, the transaction would be stopped.”
Ford spokesperson Ian Thibodeau said he could not comment on why the automaker would delay reporting vehicles as stolen, citing ongoing investigations.
“When we become aware of robberies, we promptly report the losses to law enforcement agencies. … In fact, along with unsuspecting people who purchase these vehicles, Ford and other companies are victims here,” Thibodeau told the Free Press.
