diff --git a/models/TicketModel.php b/models/TicketModel.php
index 87bad9c..c73c8ce 100644
--- a/models/TicketModel.php
+++ b/models/TicketModel.php
@@ -81,9 +81,12 @@ class TicketModel {
         if ($search && !empty($search)) {
             if ($this->hasFulltextIndex()) {
                 // MATCH...AGAINST for indexed full-text search (much faster at scale)
+                // Strip MySQL boolean mode special chars to prevent parse errors on user input
+                $ftSearch = preg_replace('/[+\-><()\~*"@]+/', ' ', $search);
+                $ftSearch = trim(preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $ftSearch)) . '*';
                 $whereConditions[] = "(MATCH(t.title, t.description) AGAINST (? IN BOOLEAN MODE) OR t.ticket_id LIKE ? OR t.category LIKE ? OR t.type LIKE ?)";
                 $searchTerm = "%$search%";
-                $params = array_merge($params, [$search . '*', $searchTerm, $searchTerm, $searchTerm]);
+                $params = array_merge($params, [$ftSearch, $searchTerm, $searchTerm, $searchTerm]);
                 $paramTypes .= 'ssss';
             } else {
                 $whereConditions[] = "(t.title LIKE ? OR t.description LIKE ? OR t.ticket_id LIKE ? OR t.category LIKE ? OR t.type LIKE ?)";