America's 20 Best Cities To Have Your Car Stolen

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Want to get rid of your car? Move to Fresno, CA. According to data compiled by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), Fresno had 808 car thefts per 100,000 population in 2011 .

RankMSA NameRate1Fresno, CA MSA8082Modesto, CA MSA6393Bakersfield-Delano, CA MSA6154Spokane, WA MSA5525Yakima, WA MSA5296San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA5297Stockton, CA MSA5078Anderson, SC MSA4839Vallejo-Fairfield, CA MSA48110Visalia-Porterville, CA MSA47311Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI MSA45812Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA44613Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA MSA44414Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA43115Albuquerque, NM MSA43016San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA MSA41917Oklahoma City, OK MSA41018El Centro, CA MSA40919Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA40320San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA400

Laredo, Texas, had the most vehicle thefts in 2009. It dropped to number 53 in 2011. Increased police work drove down Laredo’s car theft rate, says Pro 8 News.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
7 of 41 comments
  • APaGttH APaGttH on Jun 21, 2012

    Fifteen of the 20 cities are in California or Washington. However Oregon is absent. Lax laws and easy access to the deep water ports and Mexico as you go further south? Seattle has gotten "better" over the last couple of years - the rate was even higher. A lot of the theft previously was simple joy riding because the laws were so lax. The courts do catch and release and even adult offenders have to be caught/released something like 5 to 7 times before they see any serious county jail time. Juveniles? Pffffttt...they all but pat them on the head and tell them, "don't be seen driving stolen cars in these parts again, or we'll give you another lollipop."

  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Jun 21, 2012

    For a long time wasn't Newark NJ at the top of this list? The fact that they are almost all now in California doesn't say good things to me about California.

    • See 1 previous
    • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Jun 22, 2012

      @Geekcarlover Ahh ok, I wondered about that. Thanks. Must explain why there is the huge proliferation of used car dealers now doing buy here/pay here deals. Mostly used BMW's and MB's. Kinda funny for Newark NJ.

  • Ciddyguy Ciddyguy on Jun 21, 2012

    Not surprised and I'd be surprised if many of those cars that were stolen were newer than 2004 when 99.99% of all cars sold had an immobilizer system. Mazda finally fitted their entry level car, the Mazda3 with it in 2004 when it made its debut, but the Protege and Protege5 missed out as I found out with my P5 (not, it's not been stollen but some punk got in and took a few sundry items, nothing of any real value and left potentially valuable items and never touched the way back where I had my cheap set of roadside tools in a Huffy bag. And I'd just put in a decent JVC double din head unit that weekend with USB, Aux and Bluetooth and it is still in the car. And this occurred in Seattle back in late May. As to the list, not surprising to say the least. And I should say that the guy from Safelite auto glass who came out to clean up and replace my driver's door window said he's seeing an increase in petty crimes of stealing basic stuff. Apparently, people are getting desperate in this economy as he'd just done 6 windows prior to mine.

    • Seiichi79 Seiichi79 on Sep 06, 2012

      well if seattle is anything like spokane it will only get worse. our city government here got rid of the property theft unit around late summer last year. there has been a HUGE rise in home invasions and car theft since.

  • DisTurbo DisTurbo on Jun 22, 2012

    Australia has a city notorious for car theft. It's called Logan.

Next