Ways To Protect Your Truck Tailgate From Being Stolen In Texas

Over the last 15 years, more and more pickup trucks are being seen on Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Tyler, Texas roads. In 2023, pickup trucks accounted for 16.7% of the vehicles on the road in the US. In Texas, that average rose to 19.7%. (iseecars)

With so many trucks on the road, thieves are viewing them as prime targets and turn to them to make a quick buck from the parts they can steal and resell quickly. Among the thieves' favorite things to make off with right now are tailgates and tail lights.

Truck tailgate thefts are increasing in the Houston area, KHOU 11 reports that one man called the Houston Police Department to report the theft of two of his tailgates just months apart from each other. Police departments across the state are monitoring the thefts in addition to thefts of truck tail lights.

Truck tail lights may seem to be a weird thing to steal, but certain tail lights are rather expensive to replace. I had to have one of my truck tail lights replaced not that long ago and after looking at the replacement cost I was shocked. Thankfully the other driver's insurance company covered it because the one tail light was $700.

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Sergeant Tracy Hicks with the Houston Police Department says, "tail light thefts have been increasing in recent years because thieves can grab more of them and make more money." (KHOU 11) Today's truck tail lights have some sophisticated technology in them for blind spot monitoring and other safety features.

Ways to deter your truck from being a target:

• lock your truck's tailgate
• back in towards your garage
• back in towards other vehicles in parking lots
• contact dealership/auto parts store for special products for tail lights

Any ounce of prevention that you take can help you from becoming a victim and having to make an insurance claim which could raise your rates.

If you do become a victim of tailgate or tail light theft make sure you report that to your local police department.