Pursuant to a recent vehicle theft report that was released, it has now clear that car thieves don’t take a holiday vacation.
Every year, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NCIB) releases information about crimes that are related to vehicle accidents and thefts. It has compiled a unique list of 2013 thefts.
This report is specifically for the 2013 holiday season and was completed using information from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The bureau wanted to find out how many thefts occur during the holidays. What they found is that there were approximately 708,909 thefts during the 2013 holiday season.
Businesses rely on their fleet vehicles to be in good working condition, be covered by the right commercial auto insurance policy, and keep them protected from thefts. However, if the business vehicle is sitting around on January 1st, it is at a very high risk of being stolen. New Years’ Day is the number one day during the holiday season for vehicles to be stolen, where 2,184 vehicles were stolen on January 1st, 2014.
During Valentine’s Day of 2013, the thefts dropped slightly to 1,757. The same can be said for a slight drop around July 4th for Independence Day, when there were 1,750 vehicle thefts. The vehicle thefts once again rose to 1,998 on Halloween, when thieves must assume business owners give their employees that night off so they go looking for fleet vehicles that are parked on the street. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the lowest of the holiday thefts, with 1,353 thefts on Thanksgiving of 2013 and 1,244 thefts on Christmas day.
These were not the only holidays surveyed by the NCIB for this report. They also found that in 2013, 1,972 vehicles were stolen on Memorial Day, 1,915 vehicles were stolen on Labor Day, 1,894 vehicles were stolen on President’s’ Day, 1,774 vehicles were stolen on Christmas Eve, and 1,715 vehicles were stolen on New Year’s Eve.
One good thing to note for holiday thefts is that the least amount of thefts for the entire year occurred on Christmas Day when it was just over 1,200 thefts. The most was on August 12th, which was not a holiday, and there were 2,316 thefts.
Not only is your vehicle or fleet of vehicles at risk of being stolen, but there are also risks of the goods inside the vehicles being stolen. A business vehicle that is parked in front of your business or on the street is going to be at risk, even during the holiday season.
Be sure you have made the right precautions by having all doors locked, getting a GPS device installed to track it down if it was stolen, and not leaving expensive merchandise in the vehicle or in the trunk. In addition, have a business auto insurance policy that protects thefts.
