Local Man Learns Why The Holidays Are Big For Car Thieves

It is the most wonderful time of year, for car thieves.

Kat Anderson with the South Plains Auto Task Force said the holiday season brings an increase in car crimes because of the increased opportunity.

"Thieves know you are going to be out shopping," Anderson said. "So they're going to go to high traffic areas and they know your going to be distracted and you're going to be busy, so they take advantage."

Anderson said the cars that are stolen are easy targets.

"The biggest mistake is 50% of all of our cars stolen have the keys left in them," Anderson said.

This is something Jarid Pridmore learned the hard way.

 "I had a spare set of keys in the console, so I guess they were digging around and found it."

Pridmore's Chevy truck was stolen from his driveway on October 15^th.

It was recovered this morning when officers spotted the vehicle being used to load stolen goods into a house.

"I'm glad they found it," Pridmore said. "but it sucks they wrecked it."

The man driving the vehicle jumped out to flee the scene, while the truck coasted into a vacant lot, crashing into a fence.  

"No," Pridmore said. "I thought it was in Mexico."

Anderson said Pridmore's guess isn't far off.

 "The top three in the state of Texas are of course pick-ups," Anderson said. "And the big pick-up's, the F250's, F350's are hot ticket items now because they are used to smuggle illegal aliens in."

Anderson said thieves are also looking for cars that are left on in public places- which is illegal in the state of Texas.  

"They call it a victims assisted crime," Anderson said. "They're [thieves] opportunist so if your car is running and if your children are in it, it doesn't matter if your valuables are in it, they're going to take it."

The best advice Anderson said she could give is to not leave anything in cars.

"We recommend that you don't leave anything in your vehicle that didn't come from the factory."