Date: Regarding: Pickup Truck Thefts in the United States - (Public Dissemination) Prepared By: James Bowers, Strategic Analyst Section 1: Introduction This ForeCAST SM Report analyzes the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) vehicle theft and recovery data to identify trends and patterns regarding Pickup Truck thefts in the United States. Pickup Trucks have an enclosed cab and a factory integrated open cargo bed and are considered Light Trucks. Pickup Trucks usually have exceptional towing capabilities and a heavy duty chassis. They were originally designed for the utility that an open cargo bed provides while still providing the enclosed cab that passenger vehicles offer. Incomplete vehicles, such as a chassis and a chassis with a cab attached, intended for commercial use were excluded from this analysis. Vehicles analyzed in this report comprise only 2011 to 2013 model years and were based on the 2013 market classifications by Automotive News 1 which breaks down Pickup Truck models into three classes. Each class and the associated models are listed as follows: Compact Pickup Mid-Sized Pickup Full-Sized Pickup Nissan Frontier Chevrolet Colorado Chevrolet Silverado Toyota Tacoma GMC Canyon Dodge Ram Ford F Series GMC Sierra Nissan Titan Toyota Tundra This report includes a look at Pickup Truck thefts by class 2 and details the top 10 theft states and theft corebased statistical areas (CBSAs). In addition, the report takes a similar look at unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts, including unrecovered thefts by class, as well as the top 10 unrecovered theft states and CBSAs. Section 2: Executive Summary There were 9,441 Pickup Trucks 2011-2013 model year reported stolen in the United States between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2013. The analysis in this report shows that Texas has the highest number of Pickup Truck thefts by state (2,130) and also unrecovered thefts by state (456). The Los Angeles-Long Beach- Anaheim, CA CBSA has the highest number of thefts (455) and unrecovered thefts (79). 1 A full listing of the makes and models for each class is available at Automotive News Data Center. 2 Only NCIC entries with valid vehicle identification numbers (VINs) which could be decoded for make and model were included in this report.
Thefts Pickup Truck Thefts in the United States - (Public Dissemination) Page 2 of 8 Section 3: Thefts by Class As noted in the table to the right which details the number of thefts for each class, Full-Sized Pickup Trucks had the highest number of thefts by class with 8,367 thefts. Compact Pickup Trucks accounted for 895 thefts while Mid-Sized Pickups had a mere 179 thefts. In other words, Full-Sized Pickup Trucks made up over 88% of all Pickup Truck Thefts. Pickup Truck Thefts by Class Class Thefts Full-Sized Pickup 8,367 Compact Pickup 895 Mid-Sized Pickup 179 Total 9,441 Of the 9,441 total Pickup thefts, 4,428 are of the 2011 model year, 3,235 are of the 2012 model year, and 1,778 are of the 2013 model year. Section 4: Top Theft States and CBSAs Texas accounts for nearly a quarter of all Pickup Truck thefts in the US with 2,130. California takes 2 nd place with 1,676 thefts followed by Florida with 522 thefts. Together, Texas and California s Pickup Truck thefts account for over 40% of all Pickup Truck thefts nationwide. The chart below details the top 10 states for Pickup Truck thefts. As a whole, the top 10 theft states make up nearly 66% of all Pickup Truck thefts. A nationwide map of all Pickup Truck thefts by state is included on Page 7. Top 10 Pickup Truck Theft States (2011-2013 Model Years) 2,500 2,000 2,130 1,500 1,676 1,000 500 522 336 329 305 296 228 199 175 - TX CA FL OK GA AZ MI LA MO OH
Page 3 of 8 The following is a chart of the top 10 CBSA s for Pickup Truck thefts: Top 10 Pickup Truck Theft CBSA's (2011-2013 Model Years) 0 100 200 300 400 500 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA 235 218 214 202 185 179 167 274 322 455 Despite Texas being the number one state for Pickup Truck thefts, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA CBSA had the highest number of thefts by CBSA overall with 455; 133 more than the second highest CBSA, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX with 322 thefts. Texas holds 3 of the top 10 CBSA spots while California has 2. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (274); Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI (235) and Phoenix-Mesa- Scottsdale, AZ (218) round out the top 5 theft CBSAs. Section 5: Unrecovered Thefts Overall, 16%, or 1,480, of the Pickup Truck thefts in this analysis were unrecovered as of March 31, 2014. These vehicles may have been targeted by sophisticated organized theft rings which dismantle stolen vehicles for parts, VIN switch them to resell to unsuspecting buyers, or export them to other countries. Compact Pickup Trucks make up 2 of the 10 of the Pickup Truck models, but only make up 10% of total thefts and also 9% of unrecovered thefts. However, the Mid-Sized Pickup Truck models also make up 2 of the 10 Pickup Truck Models but only account for less than 2% of all Pickup Truck thefts and around 1% of all unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts. At the top of the following page you will find a chart detailing out the top 10 states for unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts. Texas had the highest number of unrecovered thefts with 456 followed by California and Florida with 237 and 80, respectively. Together, Texas and California account for nearly 47% of all unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts nationwide. Mississippi has the sixth most unrecovered thefts nationwide but has a staggering 39% unrecovered rate compared to 21% in Texas and 14% in California. Alabama has the ninth most unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts nationwide, yet has the third highest unrecovered rate with 30% of thefts not recovered. The only state to have a higher unrecovered rate than Alabama and Mississippi is Puerto Rico, where 33 of their 54 thefts (61%) have gone unrecovered. A map of all unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts by state is included on Page 8.
Page 4 of 8 The following is a chart of the top 10 States for unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts: Top 10 Unrecovered Pickup Truck Thefts by State (2011-2013 Model Years) 500 400 456 300 200 237 100 80 69 65 56 45 43 37 36 0 TX CA FL AZ GA MS OK MI AL LA The following is a chart of the top 10 unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts by CBSA: Top Pickup Truck Unrecovered Theft CBSA's (2011-2013 Model Years) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 79 El Paso, TX McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL 44 51 67 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 43 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 41 San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 41 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA 41 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA 40 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI 32
Page 5 of 8 The chart on the previous page details the top ten unrecovered Pickup Truck theft CBSA s in the nation. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA CBSA takes the top spot with 79 unrecovered thefts, followed by El Paso, TX in second with 67 unrecovered thefts. El Paso, TX also has one of the highest unrecovered rates out of all the CBSAs with a 74% unrecovered rate. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (51), Miami-Fort Lauderdale- West Palm Beach, FL (44), and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (43) round out the top 5 unrecovered theft CBSA s. The following is a table of the top 10 CBSA s for unrecovered theft rate where the CBSA has more than 15 unrecovered thefts: Unrecovered Pickup Truck Thefts by CBSA CBSA Thefts Unrecovered Thefts Unrecovered rate El Paso, TX 91 67 74% Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 30 19 63% McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 94 51 54% San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 92 41 45% Laredo, TX 37 16 43% Jackson, MS 74 31 42% Tucson, AZ 47 15 32% Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL 179 44 25% New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA 167 40 24% New Orleans-Metairie, LA 86 20 23% The top 5 of the top 10 CBSA s mentioned above are all located along the U.S. Mexico border, which may account for the high unrecovered rates. Section 6: Conclusion Pickup Trucks are a popular choice for both personal and work use. Given their wide range of applications and utility, they have become a favorite by car thieves. Between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2013, 9,441 Pickup Trucks were reported stolen (only 2011-2013 model years were included in this analysis). Full-Sized Pickup Trucks, in general, had more thefts with 8,367 thefts versus 895 for Compact Pickup Trucks and 179 for Mid-Sized Pickup Trucks. Texas had the highest number of Pickup Truck thefts by state and accounts for nearly 23% of all Pickup Truck thefts in the US with 2,130. California comes in second with 1,676 thefts with Florida following with 522. The top theft CBSA was Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA with 455 thefts followed by Dallas-Fort Worth- Arlington, TX with 322 thefts, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX with 274 thefts. Texas is the number one state for Pickup Truck thefts overall with three of the top 10 CBSA s being in Texas as well; however, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA CBSA had the highest number of thefts overall with 455, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX with 322 thefts. Overall, 1,480 of the 9,441 (or 16%) of Pickup Truck thefts remain unrecovered as of March 31, 2014. In addition to being the state with the most thefts overall, Texas also has the highest number of unrecovered thefts with 456 followed by California with 237. Together, Texas and California account for nearly 47% of all unrecovered Pickup Truck thefts nationwide. Mississippi has the sixth most unrecovered thefts nationwide but has the second highest unrecovered rate of 39%, only falling behind Puerto Rico which has 33 of their 54
Page 6 of 8 Pickup Trucks unrecovered (61% unrecovered rate). Also, 683 out of the 7,961 recovered Pickup Truck thefts were recovered in a state that is different that the state it was stolen from. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is the number one CBSA for unrecovered thefts with 79, however with 455 total thefts this calculates to a 17% unrecovered rate. El Paso, TX comes in a close second with 67 unrecovered thefts, but with only 91 total thefts, El Paso, TX has one of the top unrecovered rates out of all the CBSAs with a 74% unrecovered rate.
Page 7 of 8 Appendix A: Geographic Analysis of Pickup Truck Thefts by State
Page 8 of 8 Appendix B: Geographic Analysis of Unrecovered Pickup Truck Thefts by State