New Year's Day 2nd Busiest Holiday for Vehicle Thieves

Ahead of the New Year’s Day holiday, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) analyzed the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC) vehicle theft data to determine the most popular holidays for vehicle thefts. In 2011, Halloween was the busiest holiday for reported vehicles thieves. New Year’s Day, however, is still the busiest “official” holiday, and Christmas day had the lowest theft figure for a holiday and the lowest reported vehicle thefts of any day in 2011.

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)

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.