INDIANAPOLIS -- If you or your friends own a heavy duty Ford pickup truck, police are warning extra caution.
Law enforcement agencies throughout Central Indiana say thieves are targeting these expensive vehicles in growing numbers.
Police say thieves needed only a matter of minutes to steal Derek Johnson's blue Ford 250 pickup truck.
"It's kind of sickening, scary that somebody was that close to our house." Johnson said. "Having a wife and two kids, it's scary to think someone was snooping around our house."
Johnson County Sheriff's investigators say as many as 10 heavy duty Ford pickup trucks have been stolen in the past six months. Wednesday morning, Hancock County Sheriff's investigators recovered a Ford pickup that had been stripped down, burned and then left in a farm field near the Marion-Hancock county line.
"Large ones, diesels that have been stolen over the course of six months," said Johnson County Detective Ryan Bartlett. "They come up missing. We find them, generally stripped out, motors, transmissions, all the way down to the cabs."
The trucks are expensive. New ones can retail for nearly $70,000. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the heavy duty Ford pickup truck is the second-most stolen vehicle in the state of Indiana.
State police say a good way for pickup truck owners to protect themselves against theft is to install an ignition lock on the vehicle.
Anyone with information about vehicle thefts in Johnson County is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.
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