Crisis-hit Car Thieves Have Less to Steal in Russia

The market moves in mysterious ways.  This one comes from the Compass blog over at Real Clear World:

Even car thieves are now adjusting – there are more and more old Soviet and Russian-made sedans stolen on the streets than ever before. According to official statistic, the total number of auto thefts has dropped by 20 percent. Because of the crisis, the criminals are now preferring domestic “Lada,” produced by the Zhiguli car company, as the most popular brand (23% of all car theft), followed by Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. This year, more than twice as many older Russian cars were stolen in Moscow – 507 in all – than Toyotas (193 cars) or Hondas (179 cars). As the sign of the times, criminals stopped stealing super-luxury Maybachs and Bentleys, which in 2007 were stolen every month – because of the crisis, it’s almost impossible to find a buyer willing to pay money for such expensive cars.