Most Cars Get Stolen on New Year's Day

Happy people, cheerful people, hopeful people, people who pay little attention to their belongings during one of the most important holidays of the year, New Year's Day. When pretty much everyone is glad to have survived to see another year, car thieves are perhaps the most down-to-Earth people on the planet. And the only ones still working, too.

A new report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) was released this week, just in time to remind everyone what a dangerous time of the year New Year's Day is for cars. On this day, the number of vehicles stolen increases, with New Year's Day being the leader of the top when it comes to the number of vehicles stolen in the US: 2,760.

New Year's is closely followed by Halloween (2,325 cars stolen) and Independence Day/Memorial Day, each with 2,207 vehicles reported stolen. The day with the least such acts of theft is, surprisingly, Christmas, when the thieves, probably feeling the day's proverbial spirit, stole only 1,336 cars.

“Although vehicle thefts have been declining for six consecutive years - with preliminary 2010 FBI theft data pointing to a seventh year - we must maintain our vigilance. There is always a black market for items obtained by theft, and vehicles remain popular theft targets,” the NICB said in a statement.

As for what cars the thieves prefer, the NCIB released a while back a set of numbers which showed that thieves had a soft spot, in 2009, for one of the following models (as you'll see, thieves don't like American cars either): 1994 Honda Accord, 1995 Honda Civic, 1991 Toyota Camry, 1997 Ford F-150 and 2004 Dodge Ram.