On August 30th, 2016 Ryan from San Diego left his local mall and walked out to his 2014 Toyota Tacoma only to find out that his 50 Inch 4D curved light bar was stolen. The shameless thieves cut the wires and ripped the light bar from his vehicle. Two years later, Ryan’s light bar was never recovered.
Equipping vehicles with LED light bars have become more popular but so has the theft of these products. Various automotive forums have members reporting that the theft of their LED products are being stolen and very rarely are they recovered. There are steps to preventing these thefts which we will discuss in this article, but we will also discuss why the thefts are increasing.
The cost of LED lighting products are increasing as they being fortified with more features which drive the price up and makes them less affordable to select individuals. The other issue growing in popularity is the fact that more Americans are parking their vehicles in their driveway instead of their garage. According to BND.com 82% of homes are furnished with a two car garage or bigger but only 15% of homeowners park inside their garage.
The three main reasons for this are:
- The home is older in age and the garage is just too small for modern day vehicles. This is more common in areas with older homes or in large metropolitan areas.
- Americans have a lot of stuff, so much stuff that they need a place to store it all and all this “stuff” takes precedent over their vehicle. Along with storage. it is also a common practice to have a second refrigerator and the most convenient location for this second fridge is the garage. Lastly, some regions of this country have homes that don’t have basements like Florida and this is due to the swamp like environment that exist in that state.
- Finally, we have the fact that vehicles which have LED light bars mounted on them are to tall to fit in modern day garages, so they are forced to be parked outside.
So now that we took the time to scare you lets discuss some best practices you can exercise to prevent the theft of your lighting products.
When choosing your next lighting product, it is a good practice to buy security prevention devices or make sure your product comes equipped with security bolts.
Security bolts which are standard on the Aurora round LED lights make it difficult for thieves to walk away with the LED light that you purchased with your hard-earned money. The image below shows the Aurora Security tool that comes with the round LED lights.
- Stay In The Light: When in public parking lots, parking garages or on the street. try to park your vehicle in the light. Theft is less likely to occur when your vehicle is parked in the light as thieves like to work in the dark where their illegal activities can’t be seen.
- Take It Off: While this is not the most ideal technique, if you are leaving your car for an extended period of time somewhere it may be best to remove your light bar.
- Bee Aware: Remain conscious of your parking surroundings, when possible park in secured areas only.
- Keep It Tite: During the installation of your lighting product use LOK-TITE at the end of your bolts to make the bolts difficult to remove.
- Why So Sensitive?: Up the sensitivity on your vehicles alarm so that it can sense vibration easier and scare off potential thieves.
- Do You Even Weld Bro?: One method is putting a small spot weld on the mounting bolt. The downside to this method is you need to find a welder and its makes it difficult for you to remove the light bar.
- Can’t Steal Me: There are a handful of companies out there that make Anti-theft brackets for light bars but they are restricted to select styles of light bars and also limit where you can mount the light bar.
While none of these methods mentioned above may completely stop your LED light bar from being stolen it will at least slow the thieves down or make them frustrated enough to walk away. Remember, a lot of thefts occur because an easy opportunity presents itself.
Lastly, be sure to report suspicious activity to your local police department, this will allow them to set up more patrols and start investigating to see if any one else is experiencing theft problems
