Tires and Rims a Popular Target for Thieves
28 Sep 2015According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and reported in the Insurance Journal, a decrease in car thefts is being seen all over the country. In the year 1991, car thefts were at their highest. Since then, they have been steadily decreasing with each year. Between the years 2003 and 2011, car thefts have dropped by 43 percent and were lower in 2013 than they had been since the 1960s.
With this good news comes bad, however. As it turns out, even though car thefts are decreasing, thieves are more frequently stealing parts off of newer vehicles. These thefts are costing are resulting in significant expenses for car owners, car rental companies, insurance companies, and dealerships around the country.
Thieves typically steal lucrative car parts such as tires and rims and then quickly resell them to dealerships or repair shops. They are getting away with this in one of two ways. First, thieves focus their efforts on newer cars parked in parking lots, neighborhoods, or dealer lots. Easy access to these cars enables them to quickly remove tires after jacking the car up. Additionally, thieves are able to shift the car into neutral after disabling the gear shift and move it off site where they can remove lucrative parts.
Why are thieves focusing their efforts of tires and rims? The first reason is perhaps the most obvious, it is becoming more difficult to steal entire vehicles so car thieves have had to adjust their strategy. Additionally, tires and rims are are often unmarked and they are in high demand. Because of this, it is incredibly easy to quickly sell the stolen parts.
Ease of resell isn’t the only factor attracting thefts of these parts, they also typically have a pretty high resale value, making a thief anywhere from $150 to $400+ dollars. Most often the person buying from the thieves is a middle man who is able to turn around sell these parts for closer to $700 to $900 to small dealerships or repair shops.
It is important for car owners to be aware of news trends in car thefts so they can take steps to protect themselves and their property from theft. Some experts have recommended marking tires and rims to make them uniquely identifiable if they are found or sold after being stolen.
Additionally, business owners and managers providing vehicles to their employees for job-related transportation should also be aware of the risks of theft. Because of this, it is important that all business vehicles are outfitted with GPS fleet tracking to assist in tracking down vehicles if they are stolen for parts.
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