Cops Bust Ford Super Duty Taillight Theft Ring Blamed for $92,000 in Damage

Texas law enforcement officials say they’ve broken up a theft ring that stole over $92,000 worth of taillights from 34 victims. The lights were all removed from Ford F-Series trucks, and the thieves specifically targeted these pickups because each unit was worth several thousand dollars.

Houston-based news outlet FOX26 says that three suspects believed to be part of the crime ring were arrested and charged with “engaging in organized criminal activity.” They allegedly stole the taillights in the I-45 corridor from Galveston to Houston between September 2024 and January 2025. And while catalytic converter theft has become a widely reported issue over the past few years, taillight theft is more obscure.

Removing the lights from a truck is quick, easy, and quiet: thieves simply need to drop the tailgate to access the mounting bolts. “They removed two screws on the inside [of the] tailgate, pulled back the panel, and pulled the latch bars by bypassing the lock. Once the tailgate is down, two screws and the lights pop out,” a Reddit user wrote in 2023. In a car, removing the rear lights usually requires getting access to the trunk.

Most of the pickups targeted by the crime ring were late-model, high-end variants of the F-350. Why these specific lights? They’re far more complex than the units that were fitted to your grandpa’s truck in the 1990s. They often feature LED elements and integrated sensors used to power some of the driving aids, including the blind spot monitoring system, and as a pair they’re worth more than your grandpa’s truck was, too. Some of the F-Series owners who had their lights stolen told FOX26 that they paid between $4,500 and $6,500 for replacements, while a Reddit user whose F-150 Platinum’s lights were stolen in 2024 says Ford charged $2,800 for two lights. That’s excluding the module for blind spot detection.

Looking online, these prices aren’t wide of the mark. Some sites sell a full-LED left-side rear light for a 2023 Ford F-350 for precisely $1,980.37 excluding tax and shipping. Want a headlight with that? That’ll be $1,666.67, please. This trend isn’t new, nor is it specific to Ford trucks, but it explains why the slightest fender-bender can end up costing a small fortune to fix. Complexity increases cost, whether we’re talking about a taillight assembly, a watch, or an oven. For context, a non-LED rear light for the same 2023 F-350 costs $494,95, while a taillight for a 2013 F-350 costs $63.21.

“These are high-end LED taillights that have sensors in them,” summed up Webster Police Chief Pete Bacon. He added that Ford truck owners worried about getting their lights stolen should look into security options, though he warned them to make sure whatever modifications they make don’t void the warranty.

Once they’re gone, they’re gone. The stolen lights often end up sold online, but they’re not linked to a VIN so it’s hard to prove where they came from. Carlos Ancira, a detective for the San Antonio Police Department’s Property Crimes Task Force, had another suggestion: mark your lights.

“We have to be able to identify them. So, if you can tell me ‘hey, I marked them with my dog’s name, the last four [digits] of my social, anything, the house numbers on my home,’ then I can run something and try to get those lights back to you,” he told news outlet News 4 San Antonio.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard reports of thieves targeting F-Series taillights. The problem became serious enough that a company called Omaha Bravo Designs (OBD) released a kit called AllGuard that complicates the task of removing the hood, taillights, and tailgate. The kit includes a plate that covers the Torx bolts that secure the taillights and hardware that prevents access to the tailgate’s mounting bolts.

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