“Stop The Bleed!” How Dealers Can End Lot Theft Forever (and Save on Insurance Premiums)

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the car dealership guy industry spotlight. I'm your host,

Sam Darken coming up this episode. Learn how one dealer frustrated with ramp and auto theft

implemented a South African solution in New Mexico, not just to deter theft, but prevent it.

Learn why he says dealers today might be focused on the wrong theft solution. Don't track that stolen

vehicles that leave the lot, prevent it from ever crossing the curb. Plus how that dealership is

helping local law enforcement catch bad actors in the process joining the show today.

Damian Aras General Sales Manager Credit Union Auto Sales and Barton Harris Chief Revenue Officer

Titan Secure props to Titan Secure for supporting today's content. Let's get into it.

Damian welcome to the show. Tell us who you are and what you do. Hi, my name is Damian Aras. I'm

the GSM here at CU Auto Sales. So I do a little bit of everything at the store. I love the name. So

you're an independent auto dealership and you're in New Mexico and the dealership is called Credit

Union Auto Sales. For us auto dealers to get beat up by credit unions every now and again tell us

how did you come up with the name Credit Union Auto Sales. I love it. So back in the 90s when we

first started back in 1994. So we've been around for 31 years now. Long time. The credit unions

got together. They wanted a place that they could send their members where everybody gets a good deal

where the buying process is relatively easy from start to finish for most customers. It's about an

hour or so. I want to decide yes, this is the vehicle I want. As far as the name goes, we got

together with the previous owner. He got together with the credit unions and the marketing team.

They made CU Auto Sales which stands for the Credit Union Auto Sales and then also at the time

they partnered with a new car side called Credit Union Auto Services and they would be the only broker

in New Mexico. So we broke our deals for years. Unfortunately, since COVID, that portion of it

has unfortunately just inventory issues and the market has changed. Yeah, what a creative

naming strategy for a use car dealership. I'm sure you guys capitalize well on that for a long time

and you continue to have success. You and I talked backstage. We both share a common challenge.

I'm excited for this episode for that reason. In New Mexico, in the area you are, theft is a

significant issue and you've been hit by it just as hard as we have it. Ziggler Auto Group,

tell us a little bit about the problem of theft. People stealing your vehicles.

Of course with new technology that comes with the thieves coming out with the latest and

greatest stuff to be able to steal vehicles. So that's the biggest thing here in Albuquerque.

The thieves of opportunity here are the biggest problem. So we don't have issues with, you know,

people that are looking for certain vehicles and they're taking them out and they're trying to

ship them out somewhere. Our biggest thing here is you have a thief of opportunity who's typically

on drugs. They'll break into a car. They'll steal a vehicle. They'll do drugs in it and then they

ditch them. Well, they typically do get, you know, found as far as that goes. So the GPS isn't too

major of an issue here. Especially because the drug is, you know, the drugs in the vehicle once a

smoke meth in it, you know, whatever it is. So it is a total loss at the end of the day. So our

big thing is to prevent it in the first place from happening because, you know, getting a notification

at 2 a.m. that, you know, one of my cars is driving off a lot. It doesn't do much. It doesn't do much.

So it's interesting. The other area where we share common challenges, it sounds like your area is

one of the top in the nation for theft. The Chicago land has also been that, particularly through COVID.

And you mentioned to me backstage, the cops don't really get that aggressive at going after these

vehicle thefts. What's the problem with that? Why can't you get the cops to go after the cars

once they're stolen? So the big thing, you know, I know that the cops would love to be able to

arrest these guys, you know, in Bookham and put them through due process where, you know, they do

get booked. They, you know, get thrown in jail for however amount of time it is, especially because the

amount of reoffenders that we have is pretty insane. So that's the big thing is, you know, we had a

vehicle that was stolen and it was a 2024 Chrysler 300. It had 2,000 miles on it. It was a very,

very nice vehicle. And unfortunately, it was stolen off a lot. Came in that morning and saw that it was

gone. So I went ahead and called the police put in the stolen report a few days later. I get a call

from, from, I think it was BCSO, actually, that they have the person. They went ahead and they

boxed them in. You know, they tried to escape. They, you know, hit the cars on both sides. So the car

was, you know, damaged significantly. There was drugs, you know, drug residue in the vehicle as well.

By the time, you know, we looked at it. And my big eye opener with our judicial system and how it

is very criminal friendly is, you know, I was on the Zoom meeting with, with the course system.

And, you know, the judge is talking to the person that stole the car. And this was her third stolen

vehicle. You know, so it's not, it's not something that was, you know, new for her. It wasn't her

first time. She just happened to, you know, steal a car. This is her third time. And the judge is

talking to her like she's a child. You know, and this is a grown woman and she's telling her,

oh, well, good job on being on time. And, you know, you're, you're going off to your pre-court

stuff. So that's great. And I'm thinking, this is just insane. Like, this is her third time stealing

a car. And you're praising her for being able to log in on her computer. So it's just, it was

baffling to me. You know, afterwards, I know the officer that was on the line, you know, he said,

it's just so frustrating that we, you know, do the work to get these guys to catch them. And

unfortunately, you know, they get let out the same day. And that's the biggest issue we have.

And we saw that a lot in the Chicago land as well. The issues of repeat offenders, even a

little bit of organized crime, but we had one instance during COVID where they, they took a safe

out of the dealership they broke into it, stole a bunch of keys. We actually surrounded the lot

with vans to prevent them from coming back and getting anything else. And with police on the

lot, bad guy comes back, tries to drive out with another vehicle, was prevented because we had

blockers. Bad guy in front of cops gets out of the vehicle and runs to another stolen vehicle

in the road and makes it get away. And, you know, nobody, no chase ensued. And it's frustrating,

Damon, because I think most people don't understand the true cost of this type of theft to the

average business owner. It's significant, especially a small business owner, even a large business

owner, your insurance rates, I would assume are impacted by what are some of the costs to the

business and the product that you offer to your consumer of theft, repeated theft over a period of

time. So as far as cost goes for repeated, repeated theft here, our biggest thing is, you know,

the insurance, of course, the premium skyrocket, you know, not only for ourselves, if a customer gets

a car stolen, the same thing goes with them. You know, but especially for dealership insurance,

in Albuquerque, we already pay very high insurance rates, because we are very high for car theft,

very concourse. So that was the big thing is that, you know, the insurance premiums kept skyrocketing

to a point where, you know, the last vehicle that we had stolen, we just, you know, ate the loss,

just because it was one of the things that we couldn't afford for the insurance to keep going up

and keep having claims and potentially get dropped for the amount that we have.

Your inventory could be uninsurable and then you're out of business. And I think every large

business owner in the automotive world has faced that reality that you've got to do something to

address this significant severe theft. And so you went out searching for a solution and you found

an unusual solution. Tell us, tell us what you did to try to resolve this issue of repeated theft.

You had five vehicles stolen in a short period of time and you said enough is enough.

Exactly. So what we used to do is we used to sell etch. So we would etch all the vehicles

in the event that the vehicle was stolen. They would go ahead and, you know, wait 30 days. And,

like I said, in New Mexico, typically the recoveries, you know, are going to be pretty quick because

there are thieves of opportunity just looking for a ride across town so they can do drugs in a car,

do some crime, and then ditch it. So the payout was never something that was a value, you know,

to the customers. In my opinion, the reinsure program for that, which is what we did, paid out

in five years. So, you know, the reinsurance was one of the things that, you know, took a while for us

to, you know, to get paid out on as well. So what we went out looking is I went ahead and, you know,

looked online and I saw low jack. I saw apex car RX. That's all these different, you know,

manufacturers. I looked into it and my biggest thing is is preventing the car from leaving my

lot in the first place, especially because the police don't respond typically to any kind of crimes

that aren't serious. So somebody's not getting, you know, robbed by a gun at gunpoint, you know,

something major, the police just aren't going to respond. They don't respond to car accidents

anymore, just because they're so busy with the high crime in abracurkey in general that they just

don't have time to do that. So in my opinion, it's a savior for me because I live, you know, five

minutes away from the store. And if I get a GPS notification that the vehicle is getting stolen,

you know, I'd probably too late. Exactly. And try to do a little bit. What are you going to do?

That's my style. Unfortunately, that's not the smart thing to do. So we needed a solution that

actually prevented anything from leaving the law in general. We looked into different kill switches.

You know, we looked into alarm systems, fiber alarms, different kind of stuff. And

Titan, the way that they work is just so unique that I do have access to my fleet.

So as far as test drive goes, as if my texts are taking out cars, you know, on test drives,

I can actually see how they're driving the vehicles. It gives me a diagnostic report as well of,

you know, their driving capabilities. So, you know, as far as it goes, the package was much better for us.

So Damien, enter Barton Harris, chief revenue officer, Titan Secure. Barton, Damien calls

you up and says, look, we're in one of the highest crime areas in the country. Vehicles are being

stolen and they're the bad people are engaging in criminal acts in the vehicles. We don't care

about getting notification once the vehicle's stolen. We want to solve this problem before

ever leaves the lot. And you said we can help with that. What made you think different about theft

prevention, not just GPS, but preventing it before it ever starts. And how did you achieve that

Barton? It's interesting, Sam. I've worked for three of the largest GPS providers and they really

do provide a great service. So this is this is not set up to to speak poorly about competitors

in our industry. But I have to be honest in in my history at GPS, I was morally conflicted,

morally conflicted because we didn't address the root cause of the issue. Our parent company is

the BIA group out of South Africa. Titan was not born in a think tank. So not a bunch of people

sit around going, hey, what can we do to go sell another product to car dealers who get up,

hit up five to ten times a week minimum for the next latest and greatest, right? Yeah, yeah.

We were victims in South Africa of car jackings and auto theft. And just to be clear,

Damien might think that Albuquerque and pueblo, Colorado and Chicago land hold the trophy for auto

theft. You're not even not so, not so South Africa is the number one most volatile environment for auto theft

in the world hands down. And a lot of it has to do with corruption. They're they're using military

grade jamming equipment to steal cars and Toyota's wisdom because the taxi system or all CNS,

they love to go to go get a high lux, which is the equivalent of a of a Tacoma. And they can

strip the car down to the frame in three hours and all the parts are interchangeable, right?

So as a company, we were victims of theft and we own and operate 22 verticals and unrelated

industries. And so what they said is they said, we're not going to do this for this this recovery

stuff anymore. And in fact, in South Africa, you have to have two GPSs on your car qualify for

financial insurance before you take delivery. Wow. Okay. So we talk about preloads in the state,

everybody's going to have to preload a GPS. And they got to be two different ones in two different

locations. So we developed it internally. And it's solved our issues. And then all of the sudden the

word got out and people are like, well, wait a minute. If I don't have to worry about recovery,

I can just park my car. I'm interested in this. And we're proud to say in four years of business,

we've never had a vehicle stolen. We've never had a vehicle moved. That is a very powerful value

proposition to anybody. That's a huge problem. All this is a paradigm shift. I remember when I

started, when I left Berkshire Hathaway and went to work for a GPS company, everybody was still

talking about alarms. This is eight, nine, 10 years ago, right? Now we transition to where everybody

talks about GPS, but there's going to be a likely transition to a prevention model model. So

for Damien, it was a very simple and easy thing. What's the issue? I just need to walk my car

down. Okay, great. I've got that covered. I need a highly tangible unique product to sell to my

customers. I'm like, okay, well, I got that. And then the last thing, as I said, Damien operationally

speaking, how would you like for us to handle this? And he's like, well, what do you mean? I said,

well, we hire our own our own W2 fitment engineers. They're going to come out and put the systems in.

On the off chance, somebody doesn't buy it. We're going to remove it so you don't have a dead cost

drive off, right? If you have an identity theft situation, we're going to we're going to assume

liability for that. And we're going to assume liability for any stolen vehicle on your lot, right?

All right. So so so walk me through this. Damien has his lot. He's got vehicles parked out there.

And your claim is the bad actors can come on the lock and try to steal the vehicle and break into

the store. They can get the keys. They can have a key sitting in hand. And they're going to get in

the car. And in our world, the car driving off the lot triggers an alarm. And then we go into

action, right? Had a security like we have a whole process. We don't talk about it publicly,

but we have a process. You're saying the better thing is to make sure that vehicle never rolls off

the lot. How do you make sure that a bad actor with a key in hand and an intent to remove that

vehicle from your lot can't get it off the lot? It's all it's all the integration process,

right? So what we know to be true in the franchise world, we're even with independence or use

cars is there's a lot of replication, right? And so there can be some friction between a franchise

store and an OEM about making sure that a customer is registering with with the connected solution.

We're not selling the duplication. We sit on top of everything that the OEM is doing. We use factory

pins, relays, etc. And we pin this in directly to the car. We've even sourced all of the tape

that's used by the different manufacturers. So when we place this system in the car,

there's nothing that identifies that it's even there. And when they get in, there's no ignition.

And in the event that there was a car jack, a car jacking situation, we can remotely cut the

fuel to the vehicle. We throw a GPS in there because we want that customer, especially on the

use side to have those telematics features. But everything you see from my competitors,

geofences, speed alerts, trip history, all these things, we offer all that. That's already there.

But what we're saying is is just park your car, lock it up, and just come back to it. We would

much rather see someone have to replace a window than to go through the brain damage of working

with their insurance carrier. And as far as we could say about insurance, I'll let

people say, well, I got in great insurance insurance never makes you whole. They love your

premiums. They hate your payouts. So again, it was a paradigm shift built in a very volatile

environment, somewhere else, improving in the worst environment in the world to then bring

that solution here. There, there, there is an issue with that. We're, we're just trying to do

things differently. Sam, you should never have to recover a car. You should never have to

recover a car. It doesn't matter if you get the car back. I don't know what it costs you,

and I don't know what it costs your auto group for the recovery process, the labor time,

the brain damage, the headaches, why is this car here? That that we need to show up to a dealership

to sell cars. That's our number one deal. We need to sell part service and cars. So, so the

bad actor comes on the lot to a as a key in hand and attempts to initiate ignition and it just

won't start. No, I'm sorry. We've taken six hours to rewire the vehicle. Wow. And I'm not going to,

and I mean, you wouldn't go to a Michelin Star restaurant and ask for the recipe for the

Turtles too. But I can tell you our fitment engineers go through a very rigorous training process.

We have documentation library on how to put these systems in on over 300 cars. It doesn't matter.

We put them in rolls, rice, as we put them in for our ease, and we put them in just regular

domestics. The other great thing about this is, and the OEMs won't have meant to this, but we're

approved by T-Cote, which is the Toyota Council of Technology Excellence in South Africa, and

we're completely approved of VW. So, you got the OEM saying, you know, this is great and shame on

the OEMs for not having this, but that's, you know, that's another. Yeah, so I have a question,

Barton, if it works that well, and to be able to shut a vehicle down so it won't move,

why don't the OEMs just include a standard equipment on dealer lots? If that's just becoming

such a significant issue, that would be a great tool for OEMs to include. Yeah, I guess, I guess

he and I need to ask that question that $9 million. Here's the thing. I think anything that

rolls off of an assembly line. I think we don't give thieves enough credit

for their innovation. I think if thieves spent more time working on whatever craft interests them

besides crime, they'd be highly expensive. Yeah, yeah. Oh, of course. Yeah. So the bottom line is this,

I don't think the OEMs are what we'll do this. I think the OEMs work in a passive reactionary

sense. We're going to be in a proactive sense, and I also believe that manufacturers are fine if

their cars get stolen. They make a lot of money selling parts, and if cars isn't recovered,

they're happy to sell another vehicle. So it's nothing against them. I just think on a scale

of what they sell, we sell 15 million new cars and 30 or 35 million used cars in the United States.

I mean, it may never get there. You know, the difference is we've figured out we've figured out a

way to protect customers. And the bottom line is there may not be 100% adoption, but I can assure you

when I talk to people that have our system, it's the peace of mind. It's not the I need a

speed alert. It's a I just want to park my car and not worry about it. Yeah. So without giving

away the secret sauce, because I do get that bad actors, listen to the show, you don't want to

have them tell how it all works. But I assume there's some sort, is there a dashboard or something

on your end, Damien, where you can designate the times that you're closed or what what indicates

to the vehicle and to the system that you're closed and ready to go in business or you're

you're you're closed and you're you're the vehicle needs to go into a secure mode or it's daytime

and customers could be test driving and salespeople could be moving the vehicle. Yep. So they do have

a dashboard and it is one of the most intricate dashboards. It shows me location of the vehicle

is on the lot or location of the vehicles that are off the lot. And then we have a a geofence

around the property. So at well, we just changed it because of summer hours, but from eight o'clock

at night to seven o'clock in the morning, the vehicle is automatically locked. So they lock

ourselves. We don't have to worry about it. I don't have to lock them every night myself. It's

automated. And in the mornings, it's unlocked. So by the time my text get here, they can go ahead

and start cars with no issues whatsoever. Huh. Is is I want to ask this only because I've seen this

come up in other products. You're you're installing a device into the vehicle. Are there any

OEM implications where an OEM could come back and say, hey, this is going to void the

manufacturer warranty or hey, somebody's been playing with the vehicle. And so we're not going

to cover it the same way we normally would. What are the implications of that, Barton? Right. So

we know we know for certain that OBDs are or that GPS devices are installed through the OBD

it might be thrown on the posts on a on a battery or you know, if they're if they're if they're

getting crazy, they can cut into the factory wiring harness or use a t-tap system.

Yeah. We use pins and relays through the brain in the car. And then our system sits on that

and interacts with that to disengage the starter and the fuel pump when the vehicle is locked.

Okay. Okay. So there's nothing egregious that's that's that's done to the vehicle that would

raise any any issues at all. You're not cutting a wiring harness. No, absolutely. I'm not plugging

into the OBD port. The idea that the dealer would be responsible for for the fitment of this is

completely eliminated here because I know for my time in GPS the one car that we absolutely

needed to connect to we had connection issues. And we love our technicians, but they everybody has

a tendency to short short the install over time we have to go back and do corrections. So

hopefully that's right. Our fitment engineers stay at Damien's dealership from from

Bell to Bell six days a week. They manage all of the batteries because it doesn't matter what

reports or data we provide to the dealer. They get enough reports and data from everybody.

So we handle all of that. We're starting the cars. If they're not busy, Damien has effectively

picked up a W2 to employ from Titan secure at no cost to him. And if we can be very clear on this

we do this on consignment. So this is a Pego model. So use all of our items. So any of the

inventory lot management features that you see from any of our competitors in the GPS world.

We're going to do all the exact same thing. The big deal for us is you can either open our app

as a manager at the end of the night and hit one button and everything shut down in case we catch

a late deal. And then as you come in, it auto unlocks. And what the what the sales guy doesn't have

to do is he doesn't have to interact with the system to disrupt a sale. And the other part of that

is the sales guy never has to worry about a debt battery when it goes to car. So and I think what

we find with dealers is they've never had visibility. Then they blame the GPS for the low batteries.

No, you just never had visibility in your cars. So we just we just manage all that from from

the start and every day. How long from a timing perspective does it take the installer to install

the unit on the vehicle? Yeah, 45 minutes to an hour. Okay. Okay. It's that it's that intricate.

And when I mean intricate, we we have protocols and things in place that have to be met before we

sign off on this. The system has to perform perfectly in order for it to work and protect

the dealer and the dealer's most important folks, his customers. He's the he's the one on

the front lines talking to the customers. I'm not, right? Yeah. So we have to have something that

performs as advertised or we have no credibility. So, Damien, do you put this on all units? Do you

put it on high value inventory? How do you decide which vehicles get this? So all of my vehicles get

it. So everything that we're going to be keeping, that we're going to be retelling, it gets put on.

The great thing is that it's on consignment. So at the end of the day, it doesn't cost me anything

out of pocket up from. However, we have a, you know, I mean, right now we're at about 95% close rate

on it. Customers really see the value in it and what it really does for them. And the peace of

mind alone is huge because, you know, when I'm one of those guys out in the middle of the night, I'll

wake up and I'll be like, oh, did I lock my truck? And then I'll go and I'll make sure, you know,

that it's locked. And just because in New Mexico, it's notorious thing for car theft. And it

doesn't matter where you're at. You know, the nicer parts of town, of course, these are going to

get the nicer vehicles. So that's what they're going to, you know, try to go for. Yeah, that is it.

So I'm just thinking this through use car pricing is so competitive right now. You're an

independent. So, you know, a franchise dealer would say, hey, you're a little bit of a disadvantage

in use car acquisition on our other show daily dealer. We'd ask you all about your acquisition

model and where you get your best trade ins and whatnot. But we know it's a competitive marketplace.

So I'm not going to ask on this show pricing because Barton will get those questions outside of

this. But I'm going to make the assumption that if you're putting it on every single vehicle,

you've got to be able to charge enough for the upsell in the finance office and at that penetration

where it's got to be a decent F and I revenue generator. What does the close rate look like?

What is the pitch in the finance office look like that gets customers to see the value in the

product? Oh, yeah, definitely. So as far as the reserve goes, we're at about a $340 reserve on

the unit. It is a portfolio program or a reinsured program as well. We use portfolio for warranties,

for example. However, it's in the year. So it's much better as far as any program out there,

in my opinion, one of the best. And as far as the value goes, we close 95% of them.

So what we explain to customers is everybody knows somebody in Africa has had a vehicle stolen

or they've had one themselves. I can't tell you the amount of customers I have that come in

after getting vehicle stolen and the biggest thing they found them, but they've been

destroyed essentially. It's done. Yeah, yeah, you're done at that point.

Yeah, I think one thing we wanted to touch on, if that's so we set up a reinsurance program

on this. The actual data that we receive for the state of New Mexico is a 0.4% loss ratio with

a car that has GPS on it. So we partnered with Synergy Warranty Services to set this the reinsurance

program up. Why this was interesting to Damien is one of the things that I asked him about reinsurance,

I go, what tell me about your edge program? He was reserving $125 with a five year urn out.

I said, Damien, we're going to put a $25,000 that benefit. Now I can go all the way to 50,

but 25,000 is good. By the way, if we ever lose a car, I'm going to cover half of the first claim.

So I'm on the hook for 12, 5. I'm not afraid of my price. It's fine. My device hits the car at

$3.99 install. That's it. It's $399. But what we have to remember is, Damien doesn't pay for

the system if it's not sold. We're going to take it off the car. That's what we're going to do.

We're going to take it off the car. If it's a dealer trade, we're going to remove it off the car.

And you eat the expense of the installs from the uninstallable. Yeah. And so what Damien does,

what they do at this point is, is they take $340 and they send that to their reinsurance account.

Now I know that you work for Zurich for a long period. I did. Yeah. 17-year history. So Edges

So here's the difference between the two. This is why it works for Damien. It is difficult

to maintain a good position with reinsurance on service contracts when you don't have a

blend of new cars. Okay. That's fair to say. Damien in his owner reserved $340 on a hard ad

non-cancellable product that terms in 12 months. So that means moving from the A to the B account

in 12 months and not waiting for 60 months to do this. So effectively, what we've tried to do

is this. Save them on it. Save money on insurance premiums by assuming theft and identity theft

losses directly here at Titan. Provide a tangible product. It's a car of $399. Damien sells it for

$799.899. Customers are happy to pay that, right? So that's what we're trying to do is we're

trying to say, listen, let's get you out of your reinsurance position as quickly as possible.

Let's do it with a hard ad because we don't have cancellations. Let's take care of your

inventory and save you some money on your on your insurance. And let's have a product that really

does what it says for your customers and your guests. So on the upgrade, the extended contract

in the finance office, when you sell through to the client, you said it's a 12-month

turnout on the reserves. So is it a one-year contract or is it a longer transaction? It's a one-year

and then they upgrade then they upgrade directly with you after that. They could upgrade they

well, so they can upgrade through the dealer through the dealer for another couple of years,

if they want to, that's fine. But for all intents and purposes, what the dealer needs to understand

is your obligation to this is 12 months. So if you're re-insuring with a GPS provider and you're

selling three, five, six-year terms, that is your turnout period. Talk to no more than a dozen

dealers. I told them I was a consultant, Sam, I ain't telling what I did for a living. And I just

asked them what they want. And my question to dealers is, when was the last time I've entered,

just came in and said, hey, what you want? Because that's what I did with Damien. Hey, Damien,

I'm glad to be here. What do you want to see? What do you want to see in a dashboard? What do

what changes do we need to make? What's important to use so that this becomes an operational efficiency

tool so that you can manage your floor plan, manage your inventory, and make sure that we're selling

the right cars at the right time. And what other areas can we can we shore up for you financially?

That makes it advantageous to do business with you because it seems like every vendor just walks in

and says, you know, if you buy my stuff, I'm going to make another 15%. And you go to NADA and

the big laugh for me is, if you buy everything at NADA, your business is going to be up 5 million

percent, but you're going to be broke in 90 days. Yeah, that's right. So for us and for Damien,

the only thing that mattered was what problems do you have? Let's fix those. And let's have a good

partnership instead of a vendor dealer relationship. And I think that that's important for anybody

that's operating in store. So Damien's at a 90% pen on the upside. I already know his number.

He just doesn't want to brag. Okay, so 90 plus percent, if he got to 50% on the cell through,

you would have to rethink it, right? Because economically, it wouldn't make sense for you to install

all those units. I would imagine. Yeah, you're 100% right. We would be at a whopping $100 to

remove it and he would charge it to the car. Yeah. Okay. So you've got a structure if the

if the penetration falls below, but theft is such a big issue in your market. It's an easy,

it's an easy claim. How many vehicles nationwide? Do you have any stats that show how many

vehicles nationwide you're protecting Barton right now with this technology or similar technology?

How many units maybe even in internationally? Yeah, I think globally we're somewhere between 30 and

35,000. Wow. So Sam, the thing is, is we we have intentionally moved at a very slow pace,

right? As a CRO, I can tell you, and that's a cool title, but as the guy that's as a guy that's

running sales right now, Sam, I am not going to measure and we are not going to measure our

success as a business based on rooftop count. That is very contrary to every other businesses out

there. How many? How many rooftops you got? I don't care. We don't care if we have 500 or a

thousand rooftops. The level of success for us is how successful is the dealer? How successful

is the dealer financially? Are we being impactful for them operationally? Are we are we doing

things that help the dealer? Okay, once we've solved that dealer's issue, then we're going,

then we can move to the next dealer. And I think a great metric is vehicles protected. So 30,

40,000, that's a significant number globally. And you know, maybe the other metric is the

the the provable that I always go to our team and say, Hey, how many thefts have we prevented

using technology? And I'm always told, well, you can't prove the negative, right? Because we

don't know the the deals that have been prevented because they've been prevented. So Damien,

this is the interesting question since you implemented this, how many vehicles have you had driven

off the lot or stolen? Zero. Absolutely zero. And you know, that's the big thing is that I actually

came in one morning and you know, looking around at the law and one of the cars we left the the hatch

open. And like I said, we're in Albuquerque. So it's one of those things that I'm like, well, you

know, something that was missed, but at the end of the day, I know that that car is not going to go

anywhere. So that's the biggest thing. And if somebody starts messing with it, you know, I get

notifications on the vehicles, you know, that something's being, you know, tampered with, I could

check the cameras, if my motion alerts didn't go off for some reason too. And that's the other

thing is, you know, the thieves technology now is just huge. The last vehicle that we had stolen

off the lot, they actually must have had some kind of jammer for our camera system because there

is a period of two minutes where the cameras just went back. And that's the time that they were pulling

into the lot once they crashed through one of the gates. And then they were, you know, out of the

out of the lot already. By the time, you know, we looked, I mean, you couldn't even tell what they

did. And in two minutes, they were gone. So as vehicles become more and more expensive and they

certainly are as technology in the vehicles becomes more attractive to thieves and bad actors.

Barton, don't what is the future of auto theft look like? It's only going to get worse. A lot of

people thought, hey, during code, that was kind of the peak and we'll go back to some sort of a

norm. But we haven't seen that yet, not only physical theft, but also identity theft and fraud,

income fraud, and other things that just contribute to the theft part. And what is the future of theft

look like as we wrap up today? I think the future of theft is that the thieves are going to become

increasingly more efficient. I think that the thieves will go and rent high end cards that they

target to try and take them apart to figure out how to bypass the system. I think that thieves

unless there's some sort of a pivot as to where GPS is installed are going to be able to easily

identify that. I think dealers that are installing GPS, thank goodness you're doing something,

but I think there's inside jobs, especially when there's big exposure, big stores. I think the idea

of taking that out of the dealer's hands so that nobody knows what's going on is big. And I feel

like whether it's the FTC or it's our government or manufacturers trying to circumvent our franchise

laws, I think that the dealers are really under attack right now. And I do believe that theft is the

most disruptive portion in a dealership along with unlines and identity theft issues. And so all three

of those can be short up simple and easy on the side. I don't see it going away. And when the

economy turns and things get rougher, people get more desperate. The one thing that I can say a

tightness, we have never had a vehicle stolen. We have never had a big claim. It's a big claim,

but it is exactly what has happened. So that's that to us is the most and people say the same

thing, Sam, it's so funny. So at two o'clock in the morning, when somebody gets in my car and

starts it, I'm like, hey, listen, man, it's pretty simple. Serial is like something out of a box

and some milk, right? You just eat it. Here's the here's a secret sauce. When you leave the car

and you arm the Titan system, there's nothing that's going to happen unless you're going to give

them six to eight hours to wrench on your car. And just so we're clear, we're monitoring every car

on our side in dealer inventory 24 seven. And that's my guys over in South Africa. There are plus

nine. I'm in Arizona. So that's a plus nine. So when they man's asleep, it's the middle of the day

in South Africa. Yeah. So that's that's how the system set up for us. It really kind of makes it

less theft deterrent, which a lot of systems have been and complete theft prevention. You mentioned

manufacturer systems. You know, I do think the bad actors are doing that. They're studying the

the manufacturer systems, whether it's a BMW headline or wherever that exists. And that's usually

the first thing they pull out. That's why we've heard advice. You've got to have at least two

different systems, right? And and and and and that's cool. South Africa born and delivered here

into the US by in in installers. So you know, it's interesting. And I've noticed this in my own

world, Damon, you probably have to it's easy to bag on the cops because they're the ones that are

like, Hey, why aren't they going after the bad guys? It's not so much them. It's a political issue.

It relates back to the court system and politics. And I'll tell you what we found is a great

strategy. It's to align with them. Our own head of security used to be one police chief and give

them additional tools to go after these bad actors. Barton, is there anything you're doing in your

world? They're a titan secure to help police go after and pursue these bad actors.

So yes, as we we came into the Albuquerque market, we were introduced to Sheriff John Allen

in his auto theft task force for Burleo County. It's interesting. The Burleo County sheriffs are

very revered and unfortunately the APD folks are are not. So it's it's just it is what it is.

We we designed a method a method here to help the police. So I went to Damien,

asked him to find me a car about a 2016 Hyundai Sonata. We donated it to the to the Sheriff's

Department. Prior to that I went on an eight hour ride along with the Burleo County Sheriff's

Department. That was great. We had nine arrests. We covered cars and 150 fentanyl pills and seven

and a half hours. Yeah, let me go through that again. Nine arrests, two recovered cars, 150 fentanyl

pills in seven hours and 30 minutes on the street. So we buy the car. We put the titan system in.

We built an app for law enforcement. So what does that look like? They put the bait car out.

We allow the car to be started when the vehicle starts the task force and they put it out the

same two days for the same amount of time every every week. Okay. They simply get behind the

the vehicle. They press a button. There's no high-speed chases here. There's no no high-speed

chases. There's no danger to law enforcement. There's no danger to the community. We've we've had

over 45 46 arrests including a homicide offender and we now work directly with the United States

Marshall Service because they require anti theft not recovery and we feel very proud about that

because we feel like we're making a difference in a in a community where we're making a profit.

Yeah, you know, it's an interesting point. You know, at the point of vehicle it can be driven.

It turns into a potential weapon, high-speed chase, ramming, bad acts, all sorts of things by

preventing that in the first place. It basically just exposes the bad actors and props to you guys

for engaging with law enforcement, giving them the additional tools to help them to do that.

And that's incredible leadership and automotive, I'd say. The last thing I would say is a takeaway

when meeting with John Allen and his deputies and sergeants and lieutenant says, the saddest

thing about auto theft is it's the funding mechanism for all of the other ancillary crimes that affect

all of us directly. What I mean by that is not the person who's car got stolen, sex trafficking,

drug trafficking, extortion, gun running, human trafficking, the funding mechanism is the auto theft.

So if we don't get out ahead of it and try and eradicate it and we never will eradicate all of it,

maybe, but we're still going to continue to face the same issues like large cities. And it's

just really sad. And the other part of it is a lot of these younger kids get baited into stealing a

car and they go into juvenile as children and they come out as criminals and they never recover

and they never get out of the system. And so thanks for the leadership and engaging with law

enforcement to help give them the tools to help kind of limit or restrict or even stop that cycle

to begin with. Barton Harris chief revenue officer, Titan Secure, Damian RS General Sales Manager,

CU Auto Sales, Credit Union Auto Sales. Yep. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

Damian and sharing this success that you've had in helping to not only prevent theft at your

dealership, high crime area, but also lean into the revenue opportunity that exists in helping

the customers protect themselves as well. Thank you both for being on today.