DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. has stepped up technology in its popular F-150 pickup to combat the ever-evolving techniques car thieves have at their disposal.
It is the latest cat-and-mouse move that the automaker hopes will help customers avoid the costly and frustrating process that occurs when vehicles are swiped and includes a feature that won't allow an engine to start even if a key fob is in the pickup.
Motor vehicle thefts recently have been on the decline in the U.S. after several years of increases. Still, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that more than 850,000 vehicles were stolen in the U.S. in 2024, pegging losses at $8 billion.
But thefts dropped 23% during the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to an analysis by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Ford's F-150 was in the top 10 of most stolen models.
“F-150s have been the bestselling vehicle for decades, so there are a lot of them on the road,” said Christian Moran, Ford Secure general manager. “Thieves do like to go after pickup trucks. They also like to go after the contents that are often in pickup trucks. Oftentimes, there are people who have thousands of dollars worth of tools and products in the back that are valuable above and beyond what the vehicle is worth.”
Ford's Stolen Vehicle Services, which was launched with the 2024 F-150 model year, added a “Start Inhibit” feature that allows owners to disable an F-150’s engine from a smartphone by using the FordPass app. This makes it impossible for a thief to start the pickup.
That was expanded in the 2025 model year to include the F-250 Super Duty pickup. Ford plans to extend it to other vehicles in the 2026 model year.
The security package comes with the purchase of a pickup and is included for one year once activated. The cost after the first year is $7.99 per month.
F-150 owners can receive alerts to their smartphones of potential thefts that include an unauthorized person entering their pickup, whether doors are ajar and if the vehicle is moved or towed.
One of the strongest features of the security package is the coordination with police agencies, Moran said.
It works this way. Once an owner realizes or is notified that their pickup has been stolen, the owner is encouraged to call police and file a report. The owner then contacts a Ford call center, which confirms with police that a theft report was completed. The call center coordinates efforts with police to use “Start Inhibit” to shut down the engine and to pinpoint where the pickup stopped.
“Usually, within an hour is when we try to work as hard as we can to get those vehicles,” said Officer Ibrahim Kakish, a member of the Detroit police commercial auto theft section. “The sooner we get the vehicle, the better. The vehicle is more likely to be intact.”
Auto theft is lucrative as some vehicles, especially high-end and luxury models, are targeted for resale. Other stolen vehicles are used to commit crimes like carjackings and smash-and-grab robberies at jewelry, liquor and other retail stores.
“We used to say most of the people stealing cars were joyriders,” said Thomas Burke, a retired New York City police detective and a current director with the Chesapeake, Virginia-based International Association of Auto Theft Investigators.
“There are very few joyriders, now,” Burke added. “It’s all professional. They steal them, change the (vehicle identification) numbers and sell them.”
Thieves seek out easy targets like key fobs left in vehicles. They also break into a vehicle to reprogram its computer to accept another key, Burke said.
But it appears security measures are working.
“In New York in 1990, we had 196,000 cars stolen in one year,” Burke said. “This year, so far, a little over 10,000 have been stolen, and that’s out of more than 3.5 million cars registered.”
Motor vehicle theft in Detroit decreased from 9,260 in 2023 to 8,408 last year, according to the city's police department. So far this year, there have been 1,837 fewer thefts than in 2024.
“We’re finding out ways that they’re stealing vehicles, and we work with companies to try to get that stopped,” Kakish said.
Detroit Police Commercial Theft Section Officer Ibrahim Kakish participates in a demonstration of how Ford is using technology to fight thefts of its F-150 pickups and F-250 Super Duty pickups on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
Detroit Police Commercial Theft Section Officer Ibrahim Kakish takes a Ford employee into mock custody during a demonstration Wednesday of how the automaker is using technology to fight thefts of its F-150 pickups and F-250 Super Duty pickups on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
Detroit Police Commercial Theft Section Officer Ibrahim Kakish participates in a demonstration of how Ford is using technology to fight thefts of its F-150 pickups and F-250 Super Duty pickups on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
NEW YORK (AP) — Three brothers, including two of the nation’s most successful luxury real estate brokers, were convicted of sex trafficking charges Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they used drugs and force to rape scores of women they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent lifestyle.
The verdict came after 11 women testified they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers: twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, and Tal Alexander, 39. All three of the men shook their heads as the jury foreperson said “guilty” 19 straight times. Tal Alexander dropped his head into his crossed arms.
Sentencing was set for Aug. 6, when the brothers could face up to life in prison. They remain jailed.
Marc Agnifilo, a defense lawyer who spoke outside the courthouse, said he'd appeal the verdict.
“We believe in our clients' innocence and we're not going to stop fighting until we prevail, and we believe that we will one day prevail," he said.
The verdict represented a spectacular fall for Oren and Tal Alexander, who were known as “The A Team” of real estate for their high-ticket sales and celebrity clientele.
After smashing sales records at industry powerhouse Douglas Elliman, the brothers started their own firm. Alon Alexander went to law school and ran their family’s private security company, which caters to heads of state and the rich and famous.
The women described attacks that occurred after they were invited to vacation locales including the Hamptons, a Caribbean cruise and a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado. More than 60 women say they were raped by one or more of the brothers, according to prosecutors.
Defense lawyers suggested the accusers had faulty memories or were hoping to cash in on the brothers’ fortunes. The brothers, their lawyers conceded, were womanizers. But they insisted any sex was consensual.
In addition to the top charges, Alon and Tal Alexander were also convicted of sex trafficking of a minor while Alon and Oren Alexander were convicted of aggravated sexual abuse by force or intoxicant and sexual abuse of a physically incapacitated person. Oren Alexander was also convicted of sexually exploiting a minor.
When the verdict was announced, the brothers' parents shook their heads. Alon Alexander's wife held a hand against her face.
Besides the criminal case, the trio faced about two dozen lawsuits, including one filed Thursday by Tracy Tutor, a star of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” on Bravo. She alleges Oren Alexander drugged and assaulted her in a restaurant bathroom while she was in New York City for a real estate event.
When those lawsuits first began being filed, multiple women came forward claiming they had also been assaulted, and that the brothers' misconduct with women had been an open secret in the real estate world.
During the trial, many of the women who testified said they believed they’d been drugged after they were handed alcohol by one of the brothers. Some described feeling like they’d lost control of their bodies.
The brothers met the women at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, taking some on trips to ritzy locales, and paying for flights and luxury lodging. One woman testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a party at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan apartment. She said she had almost no interaction with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later in the night before waking up naked with a nude Alon Alexander standing over her.
“I don’t want to have sex with you,” she testified telling him. “Haha, you already did,” she recalled him snapping back as he “laughed in my face.”
Prosecutors pushed back on the idea that the accusers were hoping to cash in on lawsuits. Only two have lawsuits pending, prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa told jurors, and both are wealthy.
One woman who testified said she was raped by Alon Alexander in Aspen, Colorado, in 2017, when she was 17 years old. She said she was the daughter of a billionaire.
“I don’t want their money. I just don’t want them to have it,” she told jurors.
Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner, testified she was raped by Tal Alexander and another man at a home in the Hamptons in 2011 after taking a drink that left her feeling paralyzed.
The woman said she sued last year even though she will “never need their money” because the Alexanders “kept calling us gold diggers, shake down artists, con artists.”
“If there’s a kid with a stick who keeps hitting people, you take their stick away,” she told the jury. “Money is their stick, so you take it away so they can’t hurt people anymore.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Acree and Tutor have done.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement that the crimes highlighted in the trial often go unreported and unpunished.
“The truth is sex trafficking and other federal sex offenses are present in many walks of life and we have not done enough to root it out,” he said.
FILE - In this courtroom sketch, assistant U.S. Attorney Madison Smyser gestures to Alon Alexander, Oren Alexander and Tal Alexander as she presents her opening statement with Judge Valerie Caproni presiding on the bench in Manhattan federal court in New York, on Jan. 27, 2026. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)
FILE - This photo provided by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department shows Alon Alexander, left, and Oren Alexander, both of whom have been charged with sex trafficking. (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department via AP, File)
FILE - Oren and Tal Alexander speak at a panel at the Rockstars of Real Estate Event in New York., on Sept. 3, 2013. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision for DETAILS Magazine/AP Images, File)
