Again, I endorse beatings as an appropriate punishment for this kind of crime.
This past weekend, over $85,000 worth of wheels and tires were stolen from an Edmonton-area Ford dealership, along with a few break-ins and theft of interior pieces, all on Harley-Davidson and King Ranch special edition trucks.
In what was clearly a co-ordinated attack, the trucks were all jacked up, their wheels stolen, then set back down on wooden blocks. Authorities have reportedly not ruled out the possibility that someone on staff was involved.
Regardless of your opinions on the vehicles involved, it’s hard not to be disgusted at this display of greed and criminality. The vehicles belong to the dealership, not to Ford Canada, so the loss will be felt by the tiny dealership itself and their insurance, not by the larger parent company. $85,000 is not an insignificant sum, even to a dealership, and this criminal act has likely eliminated (or at least decreased) the possibility of a Christmas bonus for the staff.
Photos of some of the victimized vehicles below.
They see me rollin'
They hatin'
They won't catch me ridin' flashy
Nicely done. It's a good thing I put the tea down before I read this comment.
High $$ 20" wheels, both with unique designs. If they end up on CL or ebay, it won't be hard to determine where they came from. I wouldn't be surprised if they are on a container to someplace 3rd worldish.
Like Calgary!
Calgary? Ha! More like Newfoundland…
Whoa.
Not that I'm rooting for them, but I'm curious to know how they're going to unload these. It's not like they stole all the aluminum rims for scrap. They were specifically stealing the HD stuff, meaning they're going to sell them, meaning they'll probably be on eBay or CL or somewhere soon.
My money's on these guys getting caught, as it's most likely a crew of miscreants, one of which could be sweated out to turn in the rest.
It's gotta be an inside job; There's just too many trucks involved in the theft that they would have been caught by someone otherwise. Also, a regular car/wheel thief would have probably just left the trucks sitting on the rotors. This was clearly done by someone with a large cash backing and done with a deliberate care of the trucks that were involved in the thefts.
Never mind the fact that this job was done very shortly after the arrival of a whole fleet of Harley-Davidson F150s and F250s. Normally they only have one or two of them on the lot, but they just got a whole bunch of the 2010s, so they had a whole lot more than they otherwise would. I was at that lot on Weds of last week, and they had one 2009 model. Coincidence? I think not. I suspect an inside job quite heartily.
hmmm…. why were you there exactly?
How big of a lot is this stuff on? No one noticed eight guys running around with impact wrenches and a shitload of free wheels?
Does Canada not have security cams on the lots? Even for the odd Moose attack on a vehicle?
That's the Canadian version of a <a href="http://jalopnik.com/397503/">wheel attack, right?
way to step up lot security there ford of edmonton
Real classy.
This honestly doesn't surprise me nearly as much as it should. Ford charges WAY too much for their OEM wheels.
They could sell every one of these to shady tire shops for $100 a piece in ~30 seconds… probably more.
I was told once that the reason they charge so much is to keep everyday dudes from putting H-D wheels on a regular F-series pickup. It makes sense when you think about it. A friend of mine curb-checked his H-D a few years ago, when it was almost new, and the insurance bill to get a new wheel was waaaaay over a grand for just one. That being said, it be kind of dumb for the crooks to sell these wheels to anyone in the US or Canada because all you would have to do is just look for a NON-HD F-250, or whatever, with the H-D wheels on it. There is no way that your average truck owner is going to legitimately go out and spend $5000+ on factory wheels, and then have still buy tires.(IMHO).
Unless they bought them off a rollover job in a wrecking yard. The boneyard would probably be glad to get $500 each with a tire mounted.
It probably also costs Ford to license the H-D name for their trucks, adding cost to anything with the logo on it. Plus, those huge rims on a 3/4 ton truck probably have to be built a little more sturdy to handle the load that might be thrown at them Hell, Escalade 22" rims list for over $900 each and all they have on them is a crappy Cadillac crest.
Nail. Head. You hit it. Considering these trucks are still meant to be used as trucks (not that they *will* be used as trucks, but that's another story), the wheels have to be able to support the truck fully loaded. This is why for so long trucks rolled on 15" wheels or smaller. Add in the licensing for the H-D name plus the fact that these are specially machined wheels for only a few thousand trucks the costs add up quick. Yes, Ford is going to have a big markup on them, but it's not just an evil capitalist company trying to screw the common man.
If the shops were smart they'd sell them to people like your friend who had damaged a wheel on their H-D / King Ranch.
One of our family friends owns a tire shop and I remember a guy with a Navigator coming in with a busted wheel, it would have been cheaper for him to replace all four with aftermarket… but insurance paid for OEM.
No, they charge so much 'cause people will pay for it. Wheel engineering is well developed and a sufficient wheel is easily developed
The King Ranch and Harley Davidson license is easily covered by the $20K+ profit Ford makes on these trucks.
Here's another sign of the times: I just built a 2010 Ford F-450 Harley-Davidson Edition on their website, and I got the total up to $69,065.
Makes me think somebody's making a buck off of these things. I guess Rangers built on a platform developed in 1982 aren't paying the bills.
I got sticker shock building a Taurus SHO. Check the expensive boxes and you're upwards of $46,000. For a Taurus.
A really nice Taurus…
A really FAST Taurus…
A Taurus with an IP that tall folks will bang their knees against.
(have you sat in one yet?)
I worked at a dealership – my Christmas bonus was a turkey, and we didn't suffer any major wheel thievery.
But look on the bright side, now that the giant wheels are gone, maybe someone will come to their senses (by way of being cheap) and put on the steel wheels a truck needs to look proper.
I'm thinking very large medallions for very large old school hip hop acts.
I'd +2 for that, but I can't, so you'll have to settle for +1.
HEY GUYS! I just bought this bitchin' set of chromies! I got a great deal on them too! They are stock wheels off of…off of…uh…oh dear, umm…gotta go!
I love the fact that they took the care to put the trucks back down on blocks. Actually, it meant that they were using a floor jack and needed some clearance to get the jack out from under the A arms and rear axles after they lowered the victims. They had to know how much clearance was needed to get the jack out once the wheels were off, that's why they used 4×4's, not 4×6's or something larger. Efficient. They showed up with as many as they needed to get the job done. They had to get the wood there, and transport the wheels and other stuff away quickly and with stealth. Pros. Pretty slick. They're not going to ebay or craigslist this stuff, it was already sold. My guess would be some kind of organized crime thing, not just a bunch of tweakers. Yeah, the proceeds are in a container going who knows where.
What the heck is an XTR package? I know of XL, STX, XLT, FX4, Lariat, H-D, KR and SVT.
On an unrelated note, my local Ford dealer has a Raptor parked out front waiting for a test drive.
This is probably a Canuck only package; you can go to -http://ford.ca/app/fo/en/trucks/f150.do?modelYear... to see the package.
This is probably a Canuck only package; you can go to -http://ford.ca/app/fo/en/trucks/f150.do?modelYear... to see the package.
I thought the Canuck only packages were called the MAS. Moose Appearance Special.
As for the part about not being able to have Christmas bonuses due to this, I can only say *cough*bullshit*cough*. I'm very certain that they have insurance in Canada, too.
Absolutely. And they also charge premiums on that insurance. It all depends on how it's calculated, and how they set up their insurance. Some dealerships are insured on a per-vehicle basis, which means they'll have to pay the premium on each vehicle vandalized.
Speaking from my own experience, it REALLY doesn't take much to take a business from "best year ever" to "posting a loss".
Unless the per-vehicle deductible plan represents a very significant savings over a broader policy, I'd call it a sucker bet. That said, I see your point about the fine line between profit and loss, I'm just having trouble believing that a dealership of this size will be bankrupted, even if they have to pay the deductibles on a per-vehicle basis. It sort of seems like certain very well-off people claiming that having to pay taxes will make them poor, IE not passing the sniff test.
Oh I never said it would bankrupt them. That’s a pretty big leap. I said “no Christmas bonus”.
Based on other businesses, I’m going on the assumption that the bonus will be calculated based on a combination of sales targets, margin targets and expense targets. This incident would drop the margin targets down to zero, and probably bump the expense targets in the wrong direction. In banking, it can take one bad loan to write off a year-end bonus; the margins are probably similarly slim in the auto business.
Absolutely. A car dealership often operates on a fine line, and with the economy in the toilet, it's probably more likely that most dealerships are posting losses monthly. I know most people have a bad taste in their mouths about car dealerships, but the fact is that there are a lot of good ones out there, and for this type of thing to happen to any of them – even a bad one – it's just a shame. This will affect more than just the ownership of the store, the employees will likely feel the squeeze as well.
Save the rotors!
Oh, they did. Kudos for that at least.
Only in the land of Trailer Park Boys. Here, we're lazy and take a sawzall to the catalytic converters and/or snatch the tailgate while we're at it.
What interior parts were stolen? I’m guessing the steering wheel/airbag would be one…
They almost looks like boats without the wheels. Which they sort of are. Would make for good TG amphibious vehicles?
Gotta say, the standard Super Duty grille is god-awful. Why didn't they pull that, too, and light it on fire? We can add some Venza grilles to the pyre.
Anyway, I hope the dealership gets their insurance settlement, and these trucks get proper sturdy 16" or 17" work-truck wheels, as intended, instead of the giant chrome… things. Probably no chance of that, though.
I’d be interviewing Erik Buell to find out if he was in Canada last weekend.
how did they get away with it.? It had to be very well timed as the Timmy's the RCMP hang out at is less than a hundred yards away… also right along the highway (ballzy)