Vehicle theft continues to fall from the spike that erupted during the pandemic, heading down toward pre-Covid levels.
Thefts fell 23% year-over-year in the first six months of 2025 to slightly more than 334,000, according to National Insurance Crime Bureau statistics.
The national decline, which was reflected in every state but Alaska, follows a year-long decrease that started last year. NICB said the outlier’s problem was concentrated in the Anchorage metro area.
Thefts of Hyundais and Kias still make up four of the 10 most stolen models. The South Korean automakers’ 2011 to 2022 models have been the target of a rash of thefts due to their lack of standard antitheft technology that made them easy targets.
The companies offered free software upgrades to owners starting in early 2023 that have reduced the models’ theft rates. But the Hyundai Elantra and Sonata were the two most stolen models in the first half of this year, as thieves made off with more than 20,000 units between them, says the nonprofit organization, which works to prevent insurance crime. The Kia Optima was No. 6 and the Kia Soul No. 10.
While many auto thefts are individual criminal acts, many more are conducted by “complex” theft rings, NICB points out. It says it and law enforcement agencies, legislators and private fraud-deterrent entities have worked to reduce the thefts.
The national average theft rate dropped in the first six months from about 127 thefts per 100,000 residents to 97.
NICB said it’s increasingly employing data analytics to make progress in preventing and solving auto thefts.
