Insurers cite car theft as growth industry in Mexico

By Rey Rodriguez
CNN

MEXICO CITY (CNN) - Auto insurers report that about 60,000 vehicles were stolen in just over a year in Mexico, the highest figure in the past decade.

That's no surprise to Guillermo Cruz, who has bought two new cars this year: the first after his original car was stolen, and the second three months later after two armed men pointed guns at him, got in and drove off with Cruz inside.

"They dropped me off in the street and I thought they had already left, and I went back" to where they had taken it, he said. "And still they hadn't left; they were inside the car. And one man said to the other, 'Let's shoot him because he's becoming annoying.'"

According to the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions, the capital is a favorite site for car thieves to work.