San Antonio luxury armored car company sales up following Mexico carjackings

Click through the gallery for an inside look at Texas Armoring Corporation, which specializes in providing bulletproof glass and armor made of ballistic steel for numerous car models. Click through the gallery for an inside look at Texas Armoring Corporation, which specializes in providing bulletproof glass and armor made of ballistic steel for numerous car models. Photo: Tyler White, Photo Illustration Photo: Tyler White, Photo Illustration Image 1 of / 66 Caption Close San Antonio luxury armored car company sales up following Mexico carjackings 1 / 66 Back to Gallery

A San Antonio-based company that armors luxury cars for private and commercial use has seen an increased demand for its services following an uptick in carjackings in Mexico.

Trent Kimball, CEO of Texas Armoring Corporation, said the company has seen a 50 percent rise in interest from potential buyers who either live and do business in Mexico in the six months to a year.

The locally-based company sells and delivers from five to eight vehicles a month and 75 to 100 annually out of their East Side warehouse. TAC sells to a range of customers, from the wealthy to government officials, all around the world, including Mexico and Nigeria, he said.

"When we get an increase, it's not just every common day person coming an getting an armored car," Kimball said. "We charge about $70,000 and we do a bang up job."

The demand comes from "mainly among the extremely wealthy down there," Kimball said, who are primarily taking preemptive action in regards to rising carjacking incidents and violence in the region.

"That's the type of threat they feel," Kimball said.

That fear doesn't seem unfounded.

Brownsville police received 39 reports as of October from Texans who said their vehicles had been stolen in Matamoros this year, according to Reporting Texas. That's three times as many reports received during the same period in 2013.

As of October, police in El Paso, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Ciudad Juarez, reported 265 carjackings in the neighboring city, according to Reporting Texas.

And, in October, the U.S. State Department's travel warning to Mexico warned travelers against carjacking and highway robbery, especially along the northern border.

TAC salesman Mike Weaver said many of the company's clients are located in West Africa, notably Nigeria.

Though Kimball said orders can vary based on a customer's needs, the company offers three main tiers of armoring — which involves replacing windows with ballistic glass, lining the cabin with a lightweight but bulletproof material and armoring the car's fuel tank and battery among other measures.

For up to $50,000, the company used a lightweight material that adds about 500 pounds to the vehicle to protect passengers primarily from handgun fire. Weaver said material is 60 percent lighter than competing companies' products due to its steel-ceramic composition.

The next tier costs about $70,000 and protects passengers from M-16 and AK-47 fire.

The top tier — typically reserved for heads of state and ranging from $125,000 to $200,000 — arms vehicles to withstand a .50 caliber round, Kimball said.

One unique upgrade is a bomb sheet, which lines the bottom of the interior and works as a "catcher's mitt" for shrapnel from IED explosions, Weaver said.

For more about Texas Armoring Corporation, read today's story at ExpressNews.com.

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