Need per capita stats or the numbers are meaningless.

@Ken, what kind of truck did your brother in law have a Dodge or Ford to be tore up crossing the desert. I smell a bunch of BS, who would steal a truck to smuggle illegals across the border.

@Ex: You sound wet behind the ears. No additional info will help you conceptualize.

@ ex-hemi guy

Go watch a few episodes of Border Wars, you'll see these "coyotes" (people smugglers) get really creative when smuggling people and/or drugs, so it doesn't sound far-fetched, at all, for them to steal a truck to do their bad deeds in.

Also if it was a truck with stock suspension, it CAN get "tore up" while hauling-butt across rough desert terrain. Sometimes even full-on Baja trophy trucks break parts while racing so imagine what'd happen to a stock truck trying to do something similar.

In fact, of the top 10 states with the most stolen pickups, most of them sit along the southern parts of the country where pickups are quite popular.

So... What you're saying.... Is where pickups are more Popular they're stolen more? WOW WHODA THUNK??

What would be interesting, perhaps more so, is which make, and then model is getting stolen..... That would reflect both the "desirability", and the manufacturers attempts at making the vehicle resistant to being stolen ......

From what I seen on Border Wars and other documentaries, thieves always seem to steal the Ford F-250.

In 2006, thieves made off with 888 of the F-250s and F-350s from locations in Houston, according to Lt. Scott Dombrowski, of the Houston Police Department's auto theft division.

In 2007, he said, thefts of the same models increased 40 percent, to 1,245.

During the same two-year period, police say, the overall number of vehicle thefts in the city fell slightly.

Cartels are stealing the Ford trucks, in part, to evade increasing law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities say.

The trucks, many equipped with double cabs and four-wheel drive, hold a lot of cargo and can easily cross remote areas.

Experts say the big Fords have also been easier to steal than other trucks.

"You can steal these trucks with a screwdriver," Dombrowski said.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Rugged-Ford-pickups-stolen-to-smuggle-drugs-1783820.php#photo-1386470

Almost EVERYTHING gets stolen with more frequency in border/southern coastal states. It makes sense logistically if you are running a large sophisticated criminal organization. You here about cases of large-scale multi-million dollar heavy equipment thefts in such states to hurry up and get them across the border or into international waters.

So here we go with Brandon D starting the brand bashing and to think the forum clique tries to blame it on the Ram fans.

I would think one of the biggest reasons why pickup theft is more common in Texas isn't due to the 'Mexican' situation.

I would think it's due to the number of them on the roads and Texas's large population.

I suppose those Canadians' are going into Michigan stealing pickups up north.

Why?

They have to because pickups cost more in Canada.

I do think there is some flawed logic in this article.

My friend and I were on our Harley's in New Orleans. A retired N.O. detective told us to not park the bikes and go bar hopping because the bikes would be on a boat heading out of the Gulf to a foreign country within an hour or two. He said bike thefts are big there. We were around Bourbon St. when the detective gave us this info.

I'm glad to see some here have stepped up to attempt to diffuse any notion of this being a "racial" issue. Just two days ago the Code of Coduct was re-iterated and one of the points is: "Do not use any bad language, racial or gender-based slurs, or any other personal attacks."

I wonder what the trolls have to gain by attempting to make this into an issue of race? It's really just ignorance. I would think that when people have $40k invested in a truck, they would not take issues such as truck theft lightly.

The US/Mexico border does play a factor in auto/truck theft, but only because it is so easy to get cars over the border. In Southern California and parts of Texas, a truck can be across the border in a matter of hours. In some cases it is entirely possible that the vehicle is across the border before the owner realizes it.

It is important to realize that moving vehicles across the border is only a small part of the overall problem of theft in the US.

It's not truck thefts but gasoline thefts in my neck of the woods.
The gas thieves pick the higher 4x4 trucks so they can crawl under and drill a hole in the gas tank.
They don't use a hose down the filler neck anymore cause there's a flapper, check valve, or a valve that closes when you tip the truck over for safety, or whatever you want to call it.
Not only do you lose all your gas but you have to pay for a new gas tank.
What good are food stamps when you can't afford gasoline to go to the grocery store?

Yes, most of the trucks being stolen are F-250's. Why? Because with one phillips screwdriver and one torx screwdriver you can start ANY Superduty in, about, 60 seconds. Thieves just walk through parking lots looking for unlocked trucks, find one, and it's gone. I know dozens of people who have had them stolen near me (Texas border)