Burglaries double during the holidays: Dutch insurers

During Christmas and New Year's insurance companies in the Netherlands receive on average double the number of claims as on ordinary days, according to figures from the Dutch Association of Insurers. However, for the third year in a row there was a decrease in the number of burglary claims last year, AD reports.

Last year there wre some 38 thousand burglaries across the country, compared to 45 thousand in 2014. That is a decrease of about 18 percent. Compared to 2013, the number of burglary claims submitted per day halved from 250 to 125.

Despite this downward trend, there is still a clear spike in the number of burglaries over the Christmas holidays - insurers receive an average of 252 claims per day, compared to 125 on a normal day. "One half of the Netherlands is away from home and is having dinner with the other half of the Netherlands", Richard Weurding, CEO of the Association, said to the newspaper. "Burglars make good use of that."

Breda was the burglary capital of the Netherlands in 2015, with 5 claims submitted for every thousand households. Eindhoven came in second place, closely followed by Tilburg and Den Bosch. Groningen relatively had the fewest burglaries, with 1.5 claims submitted per 1,000 households.