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New Year's Day Most Popular Holiday for Stolen Cars

Here's a New Year’s resolution most people can get behind: lock your car doors, especially on New Year’s Day. That’s the most popular holiday for stolen cars in the United States.
Stolen cars statistics

The National Insurance Crime Bureau, based in Des Plaines, Ill., said the good news is overall automotive thefts were down in 2009 (and likely will drop for 2010), but that doesn’t mean you should be less vigilant on holidays. Just as death doesn’t take a holiday, neither do car thieves.

The holidays ranked by number of thefts reported to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in 2009 were (commentary added by poster and is not from the NCIB):

  1. New Year’s Day - 2,760 (Are cars stolen or do people just forget where they parked them?)
  2. Halloween - 2,325 (Trick or treat taken to a whole new level – don’t skimp on the candy you hand out)
  3. Independence Day - 2,207 (The day when crooks celebrate their inalienable right to steal your car)
  4. Memorial Day - 2,207 (What a nice way to honor the memory of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country)
  5. President’s Day - 2,204 (There’s no need to buy a new car at great savings – just steal one!)
  6. Labor Day - 2,202 (If car thieves actually worked for a living, they would probably take this day off, wouldn’t they?)
  7. New Year’s Eve - 2,189 (You can’t go to that kickin’ party in a taxi)
  8. Valentine’s Day - 2,090 (Nothing says I love you like a hot new car)
  9. Christmas Eve - 1,851 (“Away in a manger, no car in the driveway”)
  10. Thanksgiving - 1,620 (“I ate so much turkey I had to steal a bigger car to get home”)
  11. Christmas Day - 1,336 (Maybe, just maybe, car thieves like to spend time with loved ones)

The full report is available at NICB.org

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