In a state where one out of every four (or five) vehicles is a pickup truck, this sports and work icon placed first, second, third and seventh in the top-ten stolen vehicle derby in 2011, the last year for which numbers have been released.
The numbers also coincided with the the sales ratings for truck popularity in the state, with Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge in the one-two-and-three spots and GMC in the seventh. Toyota’s Tundra/Titan and Nissan’s Titan/Frontier vehicles did not make it into this decidedly undesirable ten best listing.
The full list is:
According to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, more than 55% of the stolen vehicles were recovered, but you may wish for non-recovered status if you are looking for your vehicle to be returned in the condition that it enjoyed prior to the theft. This is in keeping with the recently released info that tailgates from late-model trucks are among the most highly-desired components among car thieves — at about $4,000 replacement cost.
There are regional favorites among truck thieves, too. In the Rio Grande Valley, heavy-duty trucks top the list, while Panhandle scofflaws prefer standard sized models. I haven’t checked, but suspect that sales figures for trucks might reflect similar patterns.
While the Texas Auto Burglery and Theft Prevention Authority says that locking your doors while taking keys with you, and keeping valuables out of sight are the best advice to thwart would-be thieves, their advice on how to avoid purchasing one of these hot properties could be less obvious and even more helpful. After all, every vehicle theft potentially has two victims.