Happy Holidays: Highest Vehicle Theft Days Ranked
The National Insurance Crime Bureau released its annual ranking of U.S. holidays on which vehicles are most and least often stolen.


New Year's Day led all U.S. holidays with 2,469 vehicle thefts in 2017, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Photo by TheDigitalWay via Pixabay
DES PLAINES, Ill. — On an average day in 2017, there were some 2,228 vehicle thefts in the U.S., but on New Year's Day there was a whopping 2,469, according to new data on annual holiday vehicle thefts released by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
New Year's Day ranked number one for the most holiday thefts in 2017 followed by President's Day with 2,312 reported stolen vehicles, and Halloween with 2,297. Memorial Day (2,290 thefts) and Labor Day (2,180) also ranked among the top five holidays for stolen vehicles.
Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve had the lowest number of vehicle thefts of the holidays with 1,548, 1,682, and 1,737 thefts respectively. Auto thieves may have a soft spot for Christmas, as Christmas Day was also the day with the least number of thefts of any day in 2017.
While thieves are clearly undeterred by the majority of holidays, the three days in 2017 with the highest overall number of thefts were the ordinary days of Sept. 1, Feb. 1, and July 17.
The data shows that a total of 22,770 vehicles were stolen on the 11 holidays covered in the report.
The report also evaluated holiday thefts by state. California took the top spot with a whopping 5,142 holiday vehicle thefts in 2017. Texas ranked second with 1,988 holidays thefts. Florida, Washington, and Georgia also made the top five list with 1,396, 819, and 812 holiday vehicle thefts respectively.
While California experienced the most thefts on President’s Day, Texas, Florida, Washington, and Georgia followed the national trend and experienced the most thefts on New Year's Day.
NICB gathered the data for the report from the National Crime Information Center’s stolen vehicle file.
Originally posted on Auto Dealer Today
More Auto Finance

Smaller Loans, Longer Terms
The youngest generation of car buyers is more likely to finance less expensive vehicles, more than half of generation Z consumers borrowing less than $25,000.
Read More →
New Cars a Tad More Affordable
May averages show that combined circumstances gave auto consumers slightly better buying power for the month, though average prices were up year-over-year.
Read More →
First-Quarter Sees Long Auto Loan Growth
Experian data show more consumers are tapping the method, along with refinancings, to afford buying. Meanwhile, subprime borrowers are getting more access.
Read More →
Mastering Credit Friction
In this video, Josh Krach explains how to turn credit friction into an advantage.
Read More →
April Less Affordable
Based on prices, reduced incentives and slower household income growth, consumers found it more challenging to buy new last month, Cox Automotive reported.
Read More →
Auto Lenders, Consumers on a Tightrope
April borrowing data shows that more consumers are bending over backward to buy vehicles, though subprime lending cooled off for the month.
Read More →
Toyota Financial Services President Replaced
Scott Cooke has served in various roles with Toyota Financial Services for over 20 years, including president and CEO, which he retires from on June 30.
Read More →
Permission or Approval: When to Notify Finance Sources
Credit card down payments, multiple vehicle purchases and even straw purchases can be completed without committing bank fraud, as long as you tell the bank first.
Read More →
At-Risk Auto Borrowers Drive Looser Credit Access
Cox Automotive’s index shows the subprime segment, long loan terms, negative-equity borrowers and down payment amounts all grew in February despite ever-higher vehicle prices.
Read More →
Auto Loan Forecast Bucks Market Trend
Auto loan originations rose over 6% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2025, but TransUnion predicts a slight decline in auto loan growth this year, making it an outlier in the company's overall lending forecast.
Read More →