The holidays are a busy time for thieves too. Parking lots fill up, cars sit loaded with gifts, and everyone is distracted, tired, and rushing. That combination is exactly what a car thief looks for. If you know when and where the risk rises, you can stay a step ahead.
Why theft spikes over the holidays
Three things line up at once. First, mall and store lots are packed, so a thief can work a crowded row without standing out. Second, cars are full of shopping bags, packages, and gifts left on seats. Third, daylight is short, so more of your trips happen after dark when it is harder to spot someone hanging around.
Add travel to the mix. Millions of people leave their cars at home for days while they visit family, or park at an airport lot and fly out. A car nobody is watching is a soft target, and thieves know the calendar as well as you do.
Prevention comes first
You can cut your risk a lot with simple habits:
- Never leave gifts, bags, or packages visible. Put everything in the trunk before you arrive, not in the lot where thieves can watch you.
- Park in well lit spots near entrances or cameras. A dark corner of the lot is where cars go missing.
- Lock every time, even for a two minute run inside. Most opportunistic theft is a car left open or running.
- Take your key fob with you and store it away from doors and windows at home. Keyless cars can be opened with a relay attack from outside the house.
- If your car has keyless entry, keep the fob in a Faraday pouch. Learn more in what is a Faraday pouch.
Prevention beats recovery every time. A stolen car that gets recovered is still a huge hassle, and plenty never come back at all.
Where monitored tracking fits
Here is the part that matters when you are traveling. A ScorpionTrack system is monitored 24/7 from our Secure Operating Center. If your vehicle moves when it should not, we contact you. You do not have to notice it is gone and call someone. We reach out to you.
That flips the whole problem on its head over the holidays. Your car might be sitting at home while you are three states away for a week. If a thief tries to take it, we are already on it and calling you, not waiting for you to check the driveway.
Our monitored recovery tier is Standard, a hardwired system watched around the clock. If keyless or relay theft is your worry, especially with a car left at home, step up to Secure, which adds two Automatic Driver Recognition tags so the car knows the difference between you and a thief with a cloned signal.
For high risk situations, add immobilization
If you want the strongest protection while you are away, Elite adds remote immobilization on top of everything in Secure. If your car is taken, it can be stopped remotely rather than driven off and stripped or shipped. For a car left unattended for days over the holidays, that is real peace of mind.
Prefer something simple and self install? Scorpion Go is a battery powered tracker you can move between vehicles. Every ScorpionTrack tier is insurance approved.
The bottom line
Holiday car theft is predictable, which means it is beatable. Hide your gifts, park smart, protect your fob, and lock up every time. Then let a monitored tracker watch the car while you enjoy the season. We have been engineering vehicle security in Britain since 1973, and the whole point of our approach is simple: we contact you, so you can stop worrying about the car and get on with the holidays.
For more on stopping the most common attack, read how to stop relay theft.