Everyone Loves New Year's Day—Including Thieves

While millions of Americans are snoring away in their beds, sleeping off the effects of raucous New Year's Eve parties, or glued to the bowl games on their televisions, thousands of car thieves are slinking around in the cold looking to boost their wheels.

According to statistics from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), New Year's Day is the leading holiday for reported vehicle thefts. Interestingly, however, NICB finds that Christmas Day—just seven days earlier—happens to be the holiday with the least reported auto thefts. 

The good news for insurers is that holiday auto thefts have declined slightly in recent years. The NICB reviewed 11 holidays in 2009, finding that 22,991 vehicles were reported stolen compared to 24,676 reported on the same holidays in 2008.

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

To review the NICB's full report, click here.