NAPLES, Fla. – Crash and burn your car for money?

With more people losing their jobs and homes, some have resorted to torching their cars to collect insurance checks, to escape high monthly payments and to get out of costly leases.

Insurers say this type of “owner give-up” has happened at an alarming rate across the country since 2007.

“With the economy being what it is, sometimes people take measures that only make things worse for them,” said Lynne McChristian, the Florida representative for the Insurance Information Institute.

Investigating the crime can be time-consuming and difficult, as the fire can destroy most of the evidence, experts say.

Nearly 20 percent of all arsons occur in vehicles, and arson is the second-highest cause of vehicle fires in the country, according to a report by the U.S. Fire Administration. About 10 percent of all vehicle fires are intentionally set.

Fire departments responded to about 236,000 vehicle fires in the U.S. in 2008 – a new low, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Only a fraction of those were found to be arson.

However, in many parts of the country, fraud bureaus reported increases in “auto give-ups,” including arsons, in 2009, according to a survey by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. Vehicle arsons appear to have leveled off this year and may be going down, said Executive Director Dennis Jay.

Since the recession hit, some desperate owners have hidden their vehicles in other people’s garages or driven them into canals and then reported them stolen, hoping to collect money from their insurers and get out of their financial obligations, which also falls into the category of “owner give-ups,” Jay said.

“The first thing to go is the boat, or the RV,” he said. “People will dump those. Then the next thing is the car. The last thing is the house.”