Aside from ravenous wildfires, Texans face another pernicious foe: rampant heavy equipment (HE) theft. That's what the findings of the latest National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) ForeCAST report suggest anyway.

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

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

NICB Strategist Analyst Erin Dugan noted that problem is most pronounced in the “Sun Belt” region of the country. The most heavily affected state was Texas, as 1,023 thefts happened on Lone Star soil. Moreover, Texas cities claimed half of the NICB's “Top 10” hotbeds for theft of this type of equipment. Trailing Texas in terms 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—of all HE thefts in the U.S. last year.

The accompanying breakdown of hotbeds reflects the high concentration of theft in that region, with Miami, Fla. and Houston, Texas claiming the top spots.

Dugan added that John Deere, Caterpillar, and Melroe models were the most desired by thieves, and that newer models of HE were “more likely to be stolen and recovered than those manufactured before 2000.”

This is a stark contrast to the proclivities of last year's auto thieves, as evidenced by the NICB's 2010 Hot Wheels report, which also analyzes data supplied by the NCIC. According to that report, the 1994 Honda Accord was the most stolen car in 2010. Of the nearly 52,000 Honda Accords stolen in 2010, more than 44,000 were models made in the 1990s, compared with fewer than 5,700 that were produced since the year 2000. The NICB attributed the gravitation toward older models to the improvement of theft-deterring technologies available in newer vehicles.  

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