By stealing your car, of course. In fact, last year, it was the holiday on which you were most likely to get your auto stolen.
Here’s the top ten (from Insurance Networking News)
The holidays ranked by number of thefts reported to the National Crime Information Center in 2009 were:
New Year’s Day — 2,760
Halloween — 2,325
Independence Day — 2,207
Memorial Day — 2,207
President’s Day — 2,204
Labor Day — 2,202
New Year’s Eve — 2,189
Valentine’s Day — 2,090
Christmas Eve — 1,851
Thanksgiving — 1,620
Christmas Day — 1,336
It’s nice to see that even most car thieves will not steal your car on Christmas. ‘Tis the season and all.
But as 2011 rolls in, be sure to lock your doors.
I am curious how much of a variation those numbers are from the average and also the days immediately around the holiday. Is there something unique about the holidays that causes an increase in auto theft? What can we do short of simply locking our doors? As you can tell I am looking for more analysis so as to develop a risk control solution.
If you click through the link above, then from there to the original report, you can see how the numbers were played with a bit in the interim. In 2008 the lowest number of vehicle thefts took place on New Year’s Eve (916), with the second lowest being Christmas Day (1,267). In 2009, Christmas Day was the lowest of that year with 1,336 followed closely by Thanksgiving with 1,620. So, strangely, while Christmas Day 2009 made the list of top 10 vehicle theft holidays, it’s also the lowest day for vehicle theft of that year. If they had included Arbor Day, Christmas would’ve been bumped off the list!