Research has shown that the holiday season around the Fourth of July is the time you need to be most concerned about your car being stolen.

According to the FBI, July and August are the "hottest" months for vehicle theft. As the July 4th holiday--which has the one of the highest incidences of vehicle theft of all national holidays. This as reported by MarketWatch.

Do You Protect Your Vehicle?

The recent study was conducted among more than 4,500 consumers in four different U.S. cities in April and May 2012, revealed that the majority of people (79%) think about vehicle theft from occasionally to often; however, 36% don't take any measures to protect their vehicles.

Also, bad habits such as leaving a running vehicle unattended (45%) or parking a car and leaving it unlocked (23%) make vehicles highly vulnerable to today's clever and opportunistic professional thieves.

Car Theft Can Lead to Identity Theft

There is also a growing link between car theft and identity theft, as thieves can not only drive away with a person's vehicle, but their identity when documents containing personal information such as a vehicle registration or even bills are left in a vehicle.

The study found that almost 33% admitted to having left an electronic device or documents with personal information in plain view, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft.

Most startlingly, almost two out of three people admitted 64%) of consumers acknowledged to having their home address programmed into their GPS systems, enabling thieves the opportunity to drive right to the owner's home, enter through the garage door and potentially burglarize their home.

Do yourself a favor and protect your car and your identity from thieves. Perhaps theft classes will lessen your worries in the future, however, now you must be fully-vigilant and not make their job any easier.