According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau statistics, a car is stolen every 25.5 seconds. As such, communities nationwide have to be cautious because they constantly face the risk of auto theft.
The NICB was created to work with insurance companies to prevent insurance fraud and auto theft. As part of its functions, the Bureau provides statistics and list of cars most popular among thieves.
Based on the Bureau’s data, the 1995 Honda Civic topped the list of cars most likely to be broken into or stolen in the previous year. On the second and third spots were the 1989 Toyota Camry, and the 1991 Honda Accord, respectively. The Nissan Sentra, Acura Integra and the Ford F-150 also made it to the list.
Luxury automakers such as the manufacturer of the Acura brake booster and Cadillac Escalade are the hot subjects of thievery. Also, statistics shows that students are now treated as easy prey to burglary.
Robyn Brinkerhoff, a junior majoring in communications from St. George, said a former roommate had his car broken into. “He came out of the house one morning on the way to school and was startled to find his car had been burglarized sometime during the night. The only thing they had stolen were his school books out of his backpack,” Brinkerhoff said. “He had CDs, a stereo, and all they were after was his books. They didn’t even take the backpack.”
Thieves are keen. Whether they wanted a particular equipment or document inside the car, or the vehicle itself, they will find a way to get it.
Based on the 2006 Crime Statistics Year End Total report gathered by the St. George Police Department, there were 137 motor vehicle thefts reported in the city of St. George for that particular year. This number mirrors only a tiny portion of the 7,267 vehicle thefts reported in the state of Utah as a whole, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s crime statistics report.
Sgt. Craig Harding, public information officer for the St. George Police Department, presented a seminar in September at the Dixie Center explaining how community awareness prevents crimes.
He described the three components of a crime: a perpetrator, a victim and an opportunity. “A crime won’t occur if one of these components does not exist. If the perpetrator is there with the mind and will to commit a crime, and the person comes out of the darkened stairwell giving the opportunity but the person is prepared, the ‘victim’ aspect has been taken out of the equation,” Harding said.
The NICB suggested a layered approach, which is described in an advice article titled “America’s most stolen vehicles” published on MSN Web site. The layers are low-cost effective suggestions that will make cars less attractive to thieves.
The first of four layers the experts suggest is basic but often accidentally overlooked. Lock the car, and take the keys – that’s it. The second is equipping the vehicle with an alarm system or warning device. Immobilizing the car by using a smart key fuel cut-off is the third layer, and finally, installing some form of tracking device that would allow authorities to recover a vehicle if stolen is the fourth, Dixie Sun reported.
About the Author:
Evander Klum is a Business Administration graduate who hails from Alabama. He enjoys extreme sports and he is also a car racing fanatic. At present, he works as a marketing manager at an advertising agency in Cleveland.
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