Aside from ravenous wildfires, Texans face another pernicious foe: rampantheavy equipment (HE) theft. That's what the findings of the latestNational Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) ForeCAST report suggestanyway.

In the report, which was released on Sept. 7, NICB analyzed datagathered by the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) on(non-mower) HE thefts and recoveries for the 2010 calendar year inthe U.S., based on the theft state, city, month, equipmentmanufacturer, equipment style, and manufactured year.

The NCIC logged 6,474 HE larcenies last year, of which only 28percent—or 1,805—were recovered, making this a costly crime forinsurers, owners of “big ticket” equipment, and rental agenciesalike.

NICB Strategist Analyst Erin Dugan noted that problem ismost pronounced in the “Sun Belt” region of the country. The mostheavily affected state was Texas, as 1,023 thefts happened on LoneStar soil. Moreover, Texas cities claimed half of the NICB's “Top10” hotbeds for theft of this type of equipment. Trailing Texas interms of the greatest incidence of HE thefts were California,Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma,Maryland, Ohio, and Alabama—occupying spots two through 10,respectively. These ten states accounted for 58 percent—or 3,736—ofall HE thefts in the U.S. last year.

The accompanying breakdown of hotbeds reflects the highconcentration of theft in that region, with Miami, Fla. andHouston, Texas claiming the top spots.

Dugan added that John Deere, Caterpillar, and Melroe models werethe most desired by thieves, and that newer models of HE were “morelikely to be stolen and recovered than those manufactured before2000.”

This is a stark contrast to the proclivities of last year's autothieves, as evidenced by the NICB's 2010 Hot Wheelsreport, which also analyzes data supplied by the NCIC. According tothat report, the 1994 Honda Accord was the most stolen car in2010. Of the nearly 52,000 Honda Accords stolen in 2010, more than44,000 were models made in the 1990s, compared with fewer than5,700 that were produced since the year 2000. The NICB attributedthe gravitation toward older models to the improvement oftheft-deterring technologies available in newer vehicles.

Although auto theft is gradually declining on the nationallevel, there is no word yet as to whether HE theft will trendsimilarly. For now, the problem weighs heavily on insurers andowners of loaders, wheel-type tractors, backhoes, forklift,excavators, bulldozers, and other equipment.