AUSTIN, Texas – A child safety group is reminding the public to not leave children unattended in vehicles. This comes as vehicle theft is up.

When holiday shopping, it’s a prime time for criminals to take advantage.

“We do see an increase in vehicle thefts and vehicle burglaries, especially in those shopping malls and places where we go to gather, restaurants, hotels, even some of the theme parks around,” Insurance Council of Texas director of communications and public affairs Rich Johnson said.

The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority said more than 65,000 vehicles are stolen, and almost 200,000 are burglarized each year.

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“Lock your vehicle, take your items with you, make sure that you have your keys, don’t have anything valuable in the car,” Johnson said.

Kids and Car Safety director Amber Rollins said never leave children in a car by themselves.

“Would you leave $1 million cash sitting on the seat in your car? Absolutely not, and your children are worth so much more than that,” Rollins said.

When the weather cools down, Rollins said it happens more often.

“We don’t want to get the children in and out of the car, put the coats on, take the coats off, re-buckle them,” Rollins said. “We cannot put our own convenience above the safety of our children. You’ve got to get them out every single time.”

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Over the Thanksgiving holiday break this year, Kids and Car Safety reported 11 incidents where kids were left alone in a car and the car was stolen. One incident happened in San Antonio.

“Most of the time these incidents result in a child being returned physically unharmed, but we do have cases where there’s a high-speed chase, the child is injured in a crash or otherwise, and we do actually have some very tragic fatalities that have happened from these cases,” Rollins said.

Rollins said it’s all preventable. To avoid getting out and shopping with kids, choose pick-up options or shop online.