Well dang! It happened.

[BKennedy]

It was "street legal". Whoever said that is completely full of crap. They wanted the gear for themselves, or to resell.

If the dealership is a registered business in your state then the owner's name is public information. Your attorney should have little difficulty finding it through one of their private investigator type search engines.

 

[BrettS.]

This is by far one of the most bizarre stories I have ever heard (and I have been in LE for 20 years). The service dept writes up a work order for the recall. Tech pulls the work order, brings vehicle into shop, and completes work order. The tech or the shop isn't going to do any work for free. Why would they decommission a vehicle for free? Why would they re-program the ECM (unless it was part of a recall or TSB to address an issue)? Why would they remove parts? They aren't getting paid by you or Ford to do it. Dealerships don't do free work; they are there to run a business and make a profit. They aren't going to decommission a law enforcement vehicle and remove equipment for free. That is a lot of labor hours for zero return. It doesn't make sense.

Here are the two scenarios that I can come up with. Tech and/or dealer mistake it for a fleet vehicle for a municipality they do work for and removed items per their contract with the fleet or municipality thinking it was being decommissioned. Crazy remotely possible. In my area no local agencies uses the dealer except for warranty work because of the high hourly rate. There are several shops that do the police equipment install and removal. 99% it is removal of light bar, lights, graphics, and console. Remove the equipment, cut the wires, remove the graphics, and send it to auction. Sometimes they will reuse rear seats, cages, etc. if it will fit new units and they don't come with it. Reuse radio, antennas, and light bars if in good shape or save for parts.

Or a tech is a thief and thought he could strip it. Again crazy remotely. It would be obvious the parts were removed and the fleet/municipality/customer would be asking where the parts where. Not to mention pretty much everybody has camera's these days and the shop would have cameras to identify it. The tech just decides on his own accord to decommission the vehicle so he can keep parts. Crazy weird.

None of it makes sense. Why would a dealer do all that work for free?

 

[Chickensandwich]

I’ve owned several ex-police vehicles, from Ford, to dodge to Chevy and no dealership, ever, did anything for free for me. The things you speak of would cost them labor to do, and that cost would be sent on to you. Even if something was illegal, they don’t have the right to remove ANYTHING from you or car. Removing ballistic panels would be the same as removing your personal laptop from your car and keeping it. If they did what you say, be prepared to prove it, if you can’t, it’s time to move on.

 

[peterk9]

^^Welcome to the Forum.

Peter

 

[Chickensandwich]

^^Welcome to the Forum.

Peter

Thanks!

 

[Mbrooks420]

It was "street legal". Whoever said that is completely full of crap. They wanted the gear for themselves, or to resell.

If the dealership is a registered business in your state then the owner's name is public information. Your attorney should have little difficulty finding it through one of their private investigator type search engines.

A simple 5 second google search showed the dealership was a 4 generation family business. I’m sure the info is readily available.

 

[BrettS.]

I’ve owned several ex-police vehicles, from Ford, to dodge to Chevy and no dealership, ever, did anything for free for me. The things you speak of would cost them labor to do, and that cost would be sent on to you. Even if something was illegal, they don’t have the right to remove ANYTHING from you or car. Removing ballistic panels would be the same as removing your personal laptop from your car and keeping it. If they did what you say, be prepared to prove it, if you can’t, it’s time to move on.

Agreed. This would probably be civil for breach of contract and criminal for theft.

 

[BKennedy]

Agreed. This would probably be civil for breach of contract and criminal for theft.

Grand theft at that because I am sure that stuff cost way more than the statutory limits in your state for misdemeanor/felony theft.

 

[VCFP153]

A simple 5 second google search showed the dealership was a 4 generation family business. I’m sure the info is readily available.

The dealership itself is not. It's owned by Luther Automotive Group. THAT company is a 4-generation family business.

 

[Mbrooks420]

The dealership itself is not. It's owned by Luther Automotive Group. THAT company is a 4-generation family business.

In any case it’s not a secret entity.

 

[VCFP153]

None of it makes sense. Why would a dealer do all that work for free?

Sounds almost like an automotive version of Munchhausen's Syndrome.

 

[The Dark Knight]

is this a troll post? you bought the car as it was, and they stole 3 thousand dollars worth of parts off of it, all of which sound street legal to me and if they weren't, they were still your parts. If they stole the stereo, you'd still do nothing?, why are you so afraid of them?

 

[Ryan FPIU13]

I have an appointment to have the Toe arms replaced at this dealership. I noticed op was asking for the tune first and thought, wow this guy lives 4 minutes away from me... (I live off the next exit) Then I read the story and that's where I get parts sometimes. now I feel like a paint marker on all the bolts might be a good idea. lol

 

[MattMPA]

I have an appointment to have the Toe arms replaced at this dealership. I noticed op was asking for the tune first and thought, wow this guy lives 4 minutes away from me... (I live off the next exit) Then I read the story and that's where I get parts sometimes. now I feel like a paint marker on all the bolts might be a good idea. lol

My recall was done a couple weeks ago. They swapped out the toe adjusters....aligned the rear wheels. No other changes. The new parts are very different from the originals. While I did read the OP's initial comments, I can't imagine a dealer taking it on themselves to remove parts from a customer's vehicle.

 

[peterk9]

I have an appointment to have the Toe arms replaced at this dealership. I noticed op was asking for the tune first and thought, wow this guy lives 4 minutes away from me... (I live off the next exit) Then I read the story and that's where I get parts sometimes. now I feel like a paint marker on all the bolts might be a good idea. lol

Welcome to the Forum Ryan.

Peter

 

[FordGuy2014]

The first article is ridiculous. “Removal of everything including every single wire” is nonsense. No one EVER strips a vehicle that thoroughly. It’d be way too cost prohibitive, and there’s no inherent issue leaving a harness.

I feel for you @JustWarminUp!!

I purchased my 2014 PIU and I brought it home to my shop to set it up as a pilot car for my transport company. We could see where all the lights had been removed. So we said we would outfit it with the same lights but in an amber color. Well once we started we noticed that every inch of wiring throughout the car that was added after the Ford build was removed. There was 2 inches of a red and black 2 AWG gauge wire in a grommet in the fire wall, that's it. We stripped the sac interior complete. All we saw was the frame/suspension re-enforcement bars. The police console was removed, all the wires and antenna wires, the front bash bar was removed... everything police related was removed. You'd think it just came out of the factory to be sent out to be Police Outfitted. In the past (in Ontario Canada) I had bought an ambulance to convert to a road service vehicle and all that was removed was the stickers and lettering. We used to be able to buy emergency vehicles as is... no more. I heard it takes them almost a day to strip decommissioned vehicles.
In Quebec there is a warehouse building with decommissioned vehicles as far as the eye can see waiting to be stripped. This started right after a deranged man from Nova Scotia had a retired RCMP vehicle and pulled people over while he was on a shooting rampage.

 

[Mbrooks420]

So, what happened? Should surely be ironed out by now. Every break the Illuminati code of silence and figure out who owns this rogue dealership?