It is a new growth in vehicle thefts in Italy, highlighted for 2023 by research by LoJack. Data in hand, from 2013 to today, 1 million and 550 thousand vehicles have been stolen. Of these, only 609 thousand have been found, and almost 940 thousand have been lost, routed to foreign markets or cannibalized and used to fuel the black market in spare parts.
At a European level, our country is second only to France, where however thefts are significantly decreasing. In all other EU member states, less than 40,000 vehicles are stolen per year. These are the main trends that emerge from the 'Dossier on Vehicle Thefts 2024', developed by LoJack Italia, which collected and analyzed the data provided by the Ministry of the Interior for 2023 and integrated them with those coming from national and international organizations on the phenomenon.
Last year there was a clear new growth in vehicle thefts (+7% vs 2022), which reached 131,679 units in our country. The increase affected practically all categories of vehicles, cars/SUVs, motorcycles/scooters. An even more significant increase specifically concerned motor vehicles (+11%), which returned close to 100 thousand thefts per year, while motor vehicles recorded only a slight increase (+2%).
The percentage of vehicles recovered and returned to their rightful owner following the theft remains well under half of the total stolen, at 44%. The data confirms the difficulties in combating this crime and how these activities are today the prerogative of real holding companies for the sale and/or dismantling of stolen vehicles.
Among the factors characterizing the growth of thefts is the increasingly frequent use by thieves of hi-tech devices capable of facilitating and making the violation of latest generation cars and their theft quicker and less conspicuous. LoJack estimates that today over 1 in 3 thefts of vehicles equipped with contactless opening systems (with opening and closing of the passenger compartment without inserting the key) are also completed thanks to the use of technological devices, which can often be purchased online for a few EUR.