Experts Say: The Leading Cause of Car Theft is Stupidity

New data is out from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), which tracks car thefts. NICB shared this report with TopSpeed, exclusively, ahead of embargo, and there’s some good news: 2024 was the first year in half a decade that saw car-theft rates decline. And it’s a big drop, of over 17 percent vs. 2023. After the pandemic saw a record-setting rise in car thefts from 2021-23, cresting at over a million a year (that’s one every 31 seconds), rates have finally fallen to below pre-pandemic levels.

Unfortunately, car thefts are still very frequent, and the top causes are surprisingly pedestrian. The good news: That means prevention is relatively easy. Spoiler alert, if you drive a Hyundai or a Chevy we have some worse news for you. (No smirking, Honda people, this is also a cloudy day for you.)

The bad news for the rest of us, regardless of what we drive, is that there’s still a car theft every 38 seconds in the U.S. And NICB says the rates of decline weren’t uniform. Depending on where you live, you might still be seeing an epidemic of car thefts. Here, we explain the leading causes of car theft, where the incidents are finally falling, and offer a few key tips about what model cars are stolen and what to do if that ride happens to be yours.

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Don’t Live in These States

The very bad news is that if you live in D.C., California, New Mexico (apparently Breaking Bad was no lie?), Colorado or Nevada you’re far more likely to have your car stolen than elsewhere in the nation. Texas, you might expect, wouldn’t be great, with so many large cities, but surprises on the list include Maryland (but not New Jersey), and Oregon.

Note that the numbers from NICB are car thefts per 100,000 residents. D.C. is pretty terrible, because with 842.4 thefts per 100,000, that totals nearly 6,000 cars stolen last year in a city with about 680,000 residents. California’s rate of 463 cars stolen for every resident is down about 13 percent from last year. Which is good, but the total number of cars stolen among 40 million Californians is still an astonishing 185,000, so about one in every 4.5 cars stolen in America last year was swiped in California. It could be worse: If California’s car theft rate matched D.C.’s, that would be roughly 337,000 cars stolen in 2024.

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Don’t Drive One of These Five Cars

We think the Hyundai Elantra is a very good car, and Hyundai sold 136,698 of them last year. Unfortunately, 31,712 were also stolen in 2024. Hyundai also had a boom year for the Sonata, which shot up in sales by 53 percent in 2024, with over 69,000 sold. And it was also the second-hottest car among car thieves in 2024 as well, being nicked to the tune of 26,720 cars. Sales of the Chevy Silverado fell slightly last year, by a few thousand trucks to 552,836.

But it’s still one of the most popular vehicles in America, and so it stands to reason that car crooks also dig this ride, and Chevy came in third in this ignominious race, with 21,666 Silverado 1500s stolen last year. All three of those models were also in the top-three last year.

Coming in fourth, at 18,539 cars stolen, is the Honda Accord. This isn’t swell, but it’s at a clip that’s 41.5 percent less bad than Elantra thefts. Bummer, that’s still 50.7 Honda Accords stolen in the U.S. every single day last year. If you drive a Kia Optima, which was replaced by the Kia K5 for model year 2021, well, maybe it’s time to upgrade to the newer model—especially if your Optima got stolen last year. Hey, we think the K5 is an excellent ride—and it’s not on NICB’s top-five-stolen car list!

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Don’t Leave Your Keys in the Car

According to reporting by BloombergBusinessweek, car thieves are still using sophisticated digital tools to intercept the signal between key fobs and cars, and cloning that signal to be able to unlock and steal cars. However, there’s a more common method: Car owners simply leave their key fobs in their cupholders, especially when they’re parked in a garage, so stealing the car requires nothing special, besides breaking the car’s window if (big if) it’s been locked via a second fob. And BloombergBusinessweek’s report shows that criminals use Google Maps footage to figure out where fancier cars are parked, then target those neighborhoods for theft.

NICB advises never leaving a key fob in a car, especially if you haven’t locked the car’s doors, but regardless, the fob/key should be nowhere near the vehicle, especially not in the car, period. You want some good news: Even though car thefts are pretty common in Washington, Oregon and Colorado, the rates fell considerably last year—by 32 percent in Washington, 30 percent in Oregon, and 26 percent in Colorado. Our advice: Don’t leave your key in the car, no matter which state you live in.

BloombergBusinessweek says criminals have figured out how to disable or remove a modern car’s GPS. Once that’s eliminated, it’s far harder for the cops to track your vehicle’s location. That’s why it’s so important to report a stolen car immediately, according to NICB’s latest release. The group says very simply that the faster you report your car stolen, the better chance there is of recovery.

The Insurance Information Institute adds that the value of used cars is rising. What would your own used car cost? Use a tool like CarGurus or TrueCar by shopping for the same model you own. Once you know that cost, you know whether you’ve got enough insurance on your car or not. The Insurance Information Institute advises that you don’t want to pay more than 10 percent of your car’s value per year—however, you should check with your insurance provider to make sure you’ve got enough coverage to afford a replacement in case your car is stolen, and whatever deductible you’d have to fork over.

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Don’t Ever Leave Your Car Running

The astonishing reason for 40 percent of car thefts is that owners leave their cars running and walk away. Often that’s because you’ve dashed into a supermarket or convenience store on a particularly cold or hot day, and want the A/C or heat to preserve the cabin temperature. Likely, too, that driver may have left a child or a pet in the car, though that’s no sure thing. NICB says that far too often, owners will leave a car running with the doors locked—or even unlocked—and either way, that car’s far too ready a target. Likewise, they advise that any owner parking a car outdoors makes it tougher on criminals by parking somewhere well-lit, to close and lock all windows and doors, and hide any valuables left in the car out of sight, because often criminals are after quick cash or anything else left behind.

All of which seems pretty obvious, but how often have you seen a car left running at your local supermarket, particularly on a very hot or cold day? As is so often the case, the trick isn’t to outrun the bear, it’s to outrun the next slowest person. Or in this case, just don’t leave your own car running and unattended, and you’ll be good.