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New years popular time to steal cars, report finds
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If you wake up New Year’s Day to find your vehicle has been stolen, chances are you’re not alone.

The National Crime Information Center found New Year’s Day to be the number one holiday for vehicle thefts, according to the 2013 Holiday Vehicle Theft Report.

A total of 708,909 vehicle thefts were reported to NCIC in 2013, averaging approximately 1,942 vehicle thefts reported per day.  The day in all of 2013 with most vehicle thefts occurred on August 12 with 2,316. The day in all of 2013 with the least vehicle thefts was Christmas Day with 1,224.

When it comes to the holidays, thieves are more likely to strike on New Year’s Day, Halloween, and Memorial Day than Christmas and Thanksgiving, according to the report. For most of the holidays in 2013, vehicle theft was lower than the daily average for the year of 1,942 vehicles stolen per day. However, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, and Halloween were over the average with New Year’s Day having the most thefts of any holiday with 2,184.

Holidays ranked by the number of thefts in 2013 were: New Year’s Day (2,184); Halloween (1,998); Memorial Day (1,972); Labor Day (1,915); Presidents’ Day (1,894); Christmas Eve (1,774); Valentine’s Day (1,757); Independence Day (1,750); New Year’s Eve (1,715); Thanksgiving (1,353); and Christmas Day (1,224).

 

The report found that California had the highest overall number of holiday vehicle thefts, by far, with 5,010. Thanksgiving and Christmas Day were tied with the least number of thefts per holiday in California but still have almost twice the thefts of any holiday for the other top 5 holiday theft states, which includes Texas, Florida, Washington and Georgia. Texas and Georgia followed the national trend with the most thefts on New Year’s Day. California had the most thefts on President’s Day while Florida and Washington had the most thefts on Halloween. California had a tie for the lowest number of thefts on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Florida and Georgia had the least holiday thefts on Thanksgiving and Texas and Washington had the least on Christmas Day.

 

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.