If you recently renewed your car insurance, you probably noticed that it has increased by tens of percent. The reason is very simple - the trend of car thefts continues to grow and in light of this, thieves' behavior patterns have also changed. If in the past most car thefts were in the evening and at night, in 2023 about 50% of car thefts took place during the day.
A study by Ituran on car theft in Q3 2023, based on a national register of about 700,000 vehicles, states that due to the shortage of spare parts for vehicles, there is an increase in car thefts of 94% compared to the same period last year and an increase of 230% compared to the same quarter in 2021. Ituran expects a continued upward trend in car thefts in the last quarter of 2023.
Fleeing and colliding with vehicles: Car thieves caught after a police chase (Archive) // Photo: Police Spokesperson's Office
Q3 2023 saw a 94% increase in vehicle thefts compared to the same period in 2022 and a 230% increase compared to the third quarter of 2021. While in the past most car thefts were in the evening and at night, in 2023 about 50% of car thefts took place during the daytime. The increase stems from the need for stolen vehicles and spare parts for personal use in the Palestinian Authority.
The previous quarter of 2023 saw a 400% increase in vehicle thefts of the 2022 production year compared to the same period last year, and a 127% increase in vehicle thefts from the year of manufacture in 2021 compared to the same period last year and a 95% increase in vehicle thefts from 2020 compared to the same period last year.
Top of the list of stolen vehicles in Q3: 46% jeeps and jeeps, 32% private vehicles, 11% motorcycles, 5% commercial vehicles, 5% trucks, 1% heavy equipment vehicles.
Thieves break into vehicles in Jerusalem (Archive) // Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office
The main targets of car thieves in the third quarter of 2023 are: Tulkarm, Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Hebron, and in the Palestinian Authority there are about 35 car slaughterhouses, especially in Tulkarm, Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Hebron, and for the first time also in Jenin.
The sample also shows that when analyzing the preferred areas of thieves, Gush Dan continues to lead the theft table in Israel with 43% of all theft incidents, followed by the Sharon region with 24%, the southern region with 12%, the Shfela region with 8%, Jerusalem and Modi'in with 9%, the northern region with 3%, and Judea and Samaria with 1%.
In 11% of theft incidents, the thief had the car key, 18% of all theft attempts were violent burglary, 64% by connecting and coding to an OBD socket, 6% by dragging / loading the tool and stealing it,
1% the vehicle was robbed of its owner or the key remained in the vehicle.
Nir Sharatsky, CEO of Ituran, said in response to the study: "Since the beginning of 2023, Ituran has led to the arrest of 519 squads suspected of car theft. An increase of 240% compared to the same period last year. The arrest of the thieves' squads saved the Israeli economy NIS 2.5 billion."
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