California Cities Dominate List of Hot Spots for Hot Cars

CARS.COM  — The advice to "Go West" to seek your fortune apparently applies to car thieves, too. The National Insurance Crime Bureau's annual Hot Spots for car theft again is dominated by California; Golden State cities claim eight of the top 10 slots.

Related: Which States Have the Highest, Lowest Car Theft Rates?

That's according to the 2015 annual ranking of government-defined metropolitan areas by their rates of auto thefts per 100,000 residents by NICB, a Des Plaines, Ill.-based insurance industry research group. The agency's calculations use vehicle theft data for the more than 400 metro areas from the FBI's National Crime Information Center.

Topping the Hot Spot list this year is Modesto, Calif., up from fifth in 2014, and swapping places with last year's No.1, the larger San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area, which had more thefts but a lower rate this year. Because the list is based on population, a small metro area such as Pueblo, Colo., can stand out as the No. 7 Hot Spot with a rate of 600.89. The area with the most total thefts for 2015 at a whopping 57,247 - Los Angeles-Long-Beach-Anaheim, Calif. -- ranks just No. 26 with its lower theft rate of 429.14.

The safest place in America to park your car: State College, Pa., with a theft rate of just 22.42 (and just 36 total thefts). It's followed by Salisbury, Md.-Del. (23.27); Sheboygan, Wis. (23.36); Ithaca, N.Y. (24.78); and Midland, Mich. (25.11).

The insurance bureau noted that car theft overall has dropped steeply in recent years as cars get harder to steal, though FBI preliminary data for 2015 indicates the decline may have reversed by 1 percent. It said the motives remain the same: older cars likely are stolen for parts, new ones to be shipped overseas or sold on the black market here. The latter is a growth area, according to the bureau, as next-generation professional thieves adopt more high-tech methods.

Is Your Area a Car Theft Hot Spot?

See if you are parking your car in one of the top 25 NICB vehicle-theft Hot Spots below. Here are the metro areas with the number of thefts and the rate per 100,000:

  1. 1. Modesto, Calif.; 4,072; 756.33
  2. 2. Albuquerque, N.M.; 6,657; 733.71
  3. 3. Bakersfield, Calif.; 6,000; 680.14
  4. 4. Salinas, Calif.; 2,934; 676.20
  5. 5. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif.; 30,554; 656.21
  6. 6. Stockton-Lodi, Calif.; 4,656; 641.23
  7. 7. Pueblo, Colo.; 983; 600.89
  8. 8. Merced, Calif.; 1,605; 597.87
  9. 9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.; 25,001; 556.92
  10. 10. Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.; 2,352; 539.34
  11. 11. Salt Lake City, Utah; 6,282; 536.80
  12. 12. Odessa, Texas; 846; 530.62
  13. 13. Fresno, Calif.; 5,149; 528.18
  14. 14. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.; 10,140; 512.94
  15. 15. Redding, Calif.; 893; 497.40
  16. 16. Chico, Calif.; 1,106; 490.66
  17. 17. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wis.; 7,681; 487.45
  18. 18. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev.; 10,046; 475.03
  19. 19. Yakima, Wash.; 1,170; 470.20
  20. 20. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.; 17,221; 461.25
  21. 21. Billings, Mont.; 775; 460.53
  22. 22. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.; 2,108; 458.40
  23. 23. Hot Springs, Ark.; 441; 453.81
  24. 24. Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Calif.; 10,257; 451.02
  25. 25. Spokane-Spokane Valley, Wash.; 2,430; 443.57

 



from Cars.com News http://ift.tt/25I95yv
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)