The National Insurance Crime Bureau had good news and bad news for U.S. car owners Tuesday - the good news is that theft rates were down 2.1 percent in the first half of 2005 compared to 2004, marking the second straight year of theft decline. The bad news? If you live in the West, you're in car thief heaven. In 2005, the ten metropolitan areas with the worst auto theft records were west of the Rockies, with California laying claim to six of the top ten. Here's the full list:
1. Modesto, CA
2. Las Vegas/Paradise, NV
3. Stockton, CA
4. Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, AZ
5. Visalia/Porterville, CA
6. Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue, WA
7. Sacramento/Arden-Arcade/Roseville, CA
8. San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos, CA
9. Fresno, CA
10. Yakima, WA
As you might expect, the NICB has recommendations to help you hang on to your ride, including the use of warning and immobilizing devices. You can read about their "layered approach" to protection here.
If your city didn't make the top ten, you can find out where it ranks and how many vehicles were boosted last year by checking the NICB web site, here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Kerr @ May 10th 2006 4:50PM
This is a crummy thing to say, but do you suppose that more cars are stolen on the West Coast and in Nv/Az because there are increasing numbers of (illegal)immigrants flowing to these areas?
Living in Memphis, I'm suprized that this area isn't one of the top 10 cities. I've had my Civic broken into three times, My Ranger once, and my '82 J2000 once. You are really hard up for wheels when you steal a J-car.
Malcolm Nguyen @ May 10th 2006 6:57PM
This is just GREAT... I live in sacramento, ranked 7th in car thefts and i just bought a new car. Not to worry my car has a state of the art anti theft system. It screams RAPE! with a womans voice so no one would miss it and it also has an electrical circuit running around the car so if you touch it, your toast.
Howard Kerr @ May 10th 2006 7:59PM
Re Malcolm,
you are kidding, right? If not, wouldn't it be better if your alarm screamed something like "free beer" or "I won(the lottery)". It's unfortunate, but in many places screaming the R word doesn't always mean you will be noticed. I've never had a car actually stolen, but I am considering the "cheap assed" security system many people in this area use: a small to medium sized flashing red or blue light easily visible from outside the car.
samuel @ May 10th 2006 8:18PM
# 3. How the hell would you know if screaming rape would or would not get you noticed? Are you really this stupid or is it just an act for the blogs?
anahit @ May 10th 2006 8:37PM
I'm with #3--on old cars I just use a blinking light but I think it's highly effective. It's simple game theory to me.
I've seen 2 types of car thieves: 1) the idiot kid/dumb doper who doesn't know much about stealing cars and 2) the professional thief whose "vocation" is car theft.
Type 1 will be deterred by a simple blinky because he doesn't know how to get around it and because there are plenty other similar cars without one. Type 2 will not be deterred by the blinky.
I've dealt with lots of car thieves and know that type 1 greatly outnumbers type 2, so the blinky takes the car off the idiot kid/dumb doper radar. It doesn't help against type 2 but deterring them in an old car is expensive relatively and type 2 can still steal most cars with alarms anyway.
Long live the blinky! My last one looked great and cost $30 installed. Oh, and my last car was prowled 4 times before the blinky, zero after.
Malcolm Nguyen @ May 10th 2006 8:53PM
RE Howard Kerr
No im not kidding my car has the Rape alarm. It gets more attention, it also does have the blinking and flashing lights like any other alarm, but instead of the horn going of(wooo wooo, eeeerr eerrr you know the weird sounds they make) it screams, RAPE! RAPE! RAPE! OHHH HELP ME, RAPE and cycles around like that. It gets alot of attention, more than any standard alarm.
Stoneman @ May 10th 2006 9:04PM
I once knew a person who put razor blades behind their radio. Well, one day a thief tried to steal the radio, and you can imagine the mess of blood in the car. The thief trashed the interior and the owner was sued for damages.
Stoneman
http://www.stonemanautoreview.com
Dan @ May 11th 2006 1:50PM
I work for a program that aggregates stolen car information and makes it available to the public for recovery purposes. The trends reported here closely map what we have have found in our own internal data. We have a large number of private citizens searching for stolen vehicles around the country, but by far the greatest number are in Northern and Southern California.
Karl Rove @ May 11th 2006 3:56PM
"This is a crummy thing to say, but do you suppose that more cars are stolen on the West Coast and in Nv/Az because there are increasing numbers of (illegal)immigrants flowing to these areas?"
It's not crummy at all, I live in Washington state and everyone refers to Yakima as the East L.A. of Washington. It's majority Hispanic and has a huge illegal population. God forbid we actually look at who commits crime in America.
PC-Police you may now begin the ritual of flaming and providing excuses for the ethically challenged.
SinfulSOB @ May 18th 2006 1:06PM
Where can I get the rape alarm?