Although vehicle thefts tend to slow down in the winter, they never actually take a holiday.
It’s important to keep that in mind when loading up the car with holiday packages or just leaving it overnight.
Despite the wintertime slowdown, New Year’s Day is still the busiest official holiday, according to analysis of National Crime Information Center vehicle theft data by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In 2011, Halloween was the busiest unofficial holiday for reported vehicles thefts.
Christmas Day holds the dual distinction for having the lowest theft figure for a holiday and the lowest reported vehicle thefts of any day in 2011—1,347.
Excluding Christmas Day, February 2—Groundhog Day—posted the fewest vehicle thefts (1,491) of any other date in the year. The most active date for vehicle thefts was August 1 with 2,687 reported thefts.
For the 11 holidays reviewed in 2011, a total of 20,800 vehicles were reported stolen compared with a total of 22,991 reported for those same days in 2010.
Although the nation has enjoyed declining vehicle thefts for eight consecutive years, the risk from vehicle theft is still very real. There is always a black market for items obtained by theft, and vehicles remain popular theft targets.
On average there were 2,055 thefts per day. January, February, March, and April had monthly theft per day averages lower than the daily average for the year, with February having the lowest average overall at 1,741 thefts per day.
Vehicle thefts rose steadily from February to the year’s peak in July with 2,244 thefts per day. The summer months of June, July, and August had the highest averages for the year, and were over the daily average along with May, September, October, November and December.
For the majority of the holidays in 2011, vehicle theft was less than the daily average for the year of 2,055 vehicles stolen per day. Halloween and New Year’s Day, however, were over the average with Halloween having the most thefts of any holiday with 2,328. In 2011, the days with the highest number of thefts were Aug. 8, July 1 and July 11, while Christmas Day, Feb. 2 and Thanksgiving had the lowest number of thefts.
Vehicle theft rates followed a similar pattern from previous years with the highest number of thefts occurring over the summer months and the lowest in the winter months. California had the most thefts overall as well as the most thefts on holidays.
Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Georgia had the next highest number of holiday thefts. The holiday with the most thefts varied slightly between the Top 5 holiday thefts states but all of them followed the national trend with the least number of thefts on Christmas Day.
The holidays ranked by number of thefts reported to the NCIC in 2011 were:
1. Halloween (2,328)
2. New Year’s Day (2,286)
3. Memorial Day (2,005)
4. Labor Day (1,977)
5. New Year’s Eve (1,947)
6. Valentine’s Day (1,895)
7. Independence Day (1,862)
8. President’s Day (1,830)
9. Christmas Eve (1,797)
10. Thanksgiving (1,526)
11. Christmas Day (1,347)
The NICB reminds drivers to be alert during the busy holiday season. That includes parking in well-lit areas, keeping packages in the trunk or out of sight and making sure a vehicle is locked while it’s parked.
