ROME – The data relating to 2020, despite the lockdowns and traffic restrictions, are merciless: 70 motorcycles were stolen on Italian roads every day (25273 throughout the year), for an average of three every hour. Only 36% of these thefts (9336) then ended with the recovery of the vehicle, an average of one in three. Six regions (Campania, Lazio, Sicily, Lombardy, Tuscany and Puglia) play the lion’s share in the series of thefts, where 80% of the phenomenon is concentrated. The Honda SH is by far the thieves’ favorite model, followed by Liberty and Vespa.
These are the main data and trends that emerge from the “Dossier on Motorcycle Theft 2020”, prepared by LoJack, a company of the CalAmp Group leader in telematics solutions for mobility and in the recovery of stolen vehicles, which collected and analyzed the data provided by Ministry of the Interior on motor vehicles and integrated them with those coming from internal elaborations and reports on the phenomenon. As expected, last year saw a significant reduction in theft of motor vehicles, mainly due to traffic restrictions (in force at various times of the past year) which kept motorized two-wheelers off the road, increased controls and consequently curbed criminal activities.
Despite the decrease recorded, 70 motor vehicles were forcibly taken on Italian roads every day (3 every hour). The trend in decreasing thefts (-25% vs 2019) was accompanied by an almost identical trend in recoveries, which kept the percentage of finds below the 40% threshold, at 36%.
The areas most at risk
The phenomenon of motor vehicle theft appears today to be strongly concentrated in 6 Regions of our country (Lazio, Sicily, Campania, Lombardy, Tuscany and Puglia), which alone account for 81% of criminal episodes: 8 cases out of 10 are recorded in these areas.
Leading the ranking of the least safe Regions for motor vehicle owners is Campania with almost 6,000 thefts (5,896), followed by Lazio (4,349), Sicily (4,251), Lombardy (3,083), Tuscany (1,564) and Puglia (1,272) . In these areas, the chances of regaining possession of your vehicle are further reduced, below the already low national average. In Campania, only 1 out of 5 motor vehicles are found.
The probability of recovery on average is drastically reduced in the territories where the greatest number of thefts occurs, further confirming the professionalization of the phenomenon, no longer in the hands of improvised criminal gangs, but inserted within well-organized networks that operate promptly, fueling an international market for vehicles and spare parts and making law enforcement activities more difficult.
The models preferred by thieves
The top ten of the most stolen models confirms the traditional undisputed primacy ofSH (6,887 cases in 2020): 1 motor vehicle out of 4 is SH. Detached of over 4,700 units, with 2,094 subtractions, is the Liberty, followed by Vespa (1.844), Beetle (1.726), Beverly (937), T-Max (513).
The ranking closes with 4 models that, on average, register less than 400 thefts a year, Agility, People, APE e Majesty.
“The pandemic has only slowed the trend of motor vehicle thefts,” he notes Maurizio Iperti, Senior VP LoJack EMEA and CEO of LoJack Italia. “Its geographic diversification is confirmed: in Northern Italy motorcycles are sold whole or in pieces; in central Italy, thefts fuel an international market for stolen motorcycles bound for Eastern countries; in the southern regions, thefts take place in a more traditional way, through burglary; in Naples they are mainly used to commit other crimes or for resale. The only countermeasure for motorcyclists and scooter riders is to equip themselves with anti-theft systems capable of catching the thief by surprise, before it’s too late “.
Five tips to avoid getting your bike stolen in the summer
Always park it in lighted places, near busy areas. Avoid secluded areas. Even better if the parking is not close to the road. This will make it more difficult to load it into a van and take it away; use a mechanical anti-theft device, tying a part of the motorcycle that is difficult to disassemble (frame or fork) to something solid (for example a pole of a traffic sign). The ideal is to place the anti-theft device (thick steel chain) suspended from the road surface, so as not to facilitate the thief in the cut with the possible “manual bolt cutter”. This type of anti-theft will drive away the most improvised thieves and in the worst case will make them waste time, with the risk of being discovered. And again: equip yourself with a sound alarm system capable of attracting the attention of passers-by.
But the best way to make the theft difficult and in any case to allow recovery more easily is to have an effective system on the vehicle that allows the police to track it down quickly, such as a GPS locator. In this case, it will be essential not to leave any informative documentation on the presence of the tracker on board, the thief could further investigate the search to put it out of use.
48 hours after the theft in 90% of cases, depending on the different areas of the country, the motorcycle will have already been cannibalized in some secret warehouse where the two wheels are quickly disassembled and the parts routed in the profitable black market for spare parts or will be the subject of the so-called “return horse” with the proposal to the owner to buy back the stolen motorcycle.
A “passive” deterrent is also that of not making it clear at first sight the model of the motorcycle and the presence of any accessories that could attract the thief’s attention. So it is good to use a sheet to cover the bike where possible, especially when it is parked in a garage; generally the thief goes in search of a specific vehicle, not damaged and even better when it is equipped with expensive accessories; hiding this primary information could lead the thief to ignore your motorcycle.
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