Two of the five UTVs recently damaged by vandals at a park in New Orleans.

Vandals recently broke into a maintenance garage at City Park in New Orleans, LA and took five utility vehicles for a joy ride. However, it was no joy ride for park officials who had to deal with over $50,000 worth of damage to the vehicles and are now down to only one vehicle for the 1,300 acre park. The vandals broke lights, windows and front ends, as well as, tearing up the grounds of the park. They also drove some of the vehicles into a lagoon in the park. Two of the vehicles were only a week old. The vandals had hot wired the vehicles. Learn more:  WWLTV.com

Comment:  While this is a story local to New Orleans, I thought I’d post an example of some of the thefts and vandalism surrounding UTVs, and raise awareness of the issue. While I don’t have any specific statistics on UTV thefts (if anyone has some sources please pass them along), my sense from a lot of the news stories I’ve seen over the past couple of years is that unfortunately this activity is on the rise. Given the increasing popularity and sales of UTVs, this should not  be unexpected. While sometimes it is straight out theft, other times it is a joy ride that can end in extensive damage to the vehicle. I would like to hear what deterrents or steps you take as a private, commercial or municipal UTV owner to safeguard your vehicles.