The National Insurance Crime Bureau said among its top 10 list of most stolen vehicles last year, the 1995 Honda Civic was in first place.

NICB, based in Des Plaines, Ill., provided the theft information in “Hot Wheels,” a companion study to its annual “Hot Spots” auto theft report.

Others on the favorite theft list were:

2. 1991 Honda Accord

3. 1989 Toyota Camry

4. 1997 Ford F-150 Series Pickup

5. 2005 Dodge Ram Pickup

6. 1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup

7. 1994 Nissan Sentra

8. 1994 Dodge Caravan

9. 1994 Saturn SL

10. 1990 Acura Integra

NICB said 1,192,809 motor vehicles were reported stolen in 2006, which is 42,417 fewer than in 2005. Using the FBI's average valuation of $6,649 per stolen vehicle, NICB calculated that this amounts to over $7.9 billion in losses in 2006–just in vehicle value alone.

“The decrease in vehicle thefts is certainly welcome news to law enforcement, the insurance industry and vehicle owners nationwide,” said Robert M. Bryant, NICB's president and chief executive officer.

“At NICB, we have been providing the latest technology in auto theft detection and recovery equipment to law enforcement agencies from California to Florida. Through the support of our member insurance companies, NICB acquires and deploys License Plate Recognition systems and bait vehicles in an effort to reduce vehicle theft,” he said.

Although overall thefts are down for the third consecutive year, only 59 percent of stolen vehicles were recovered last year–the lowest recovery rate in over a decade, NICB found.

The organization said that “the question becomes, what happens to the over 700,000 vehicles still outstanding? The short answer is they fuel a number of related insurance fraud and vehicle theft activities.”

NICB noted that its agents have recovered a significant number of stolen vehicles from foreign countries and it is not unusual for stolen vehicles to be shipped intact to other countries where prospective buyers can have them for a fraction of what they would legitimately cost with no questions asked.

Stolen exports, NICB said, may leave the country enclosed in shipping containers at coastal ports or simply driven across the border into Canada, Mexico, or Central and South America.

NICB said its Foreign Operations group actively pursues the repatriation of stolen vehicles in foreign countries and works closely with U.S. embassy personnel and foreign government officials to return those vehicles.

NICB reported that in 2006 over 4,000 vehicles with a value of nearly $42 million were returned to the U.S. from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Lithuania, M?xico, Nicaragua and Italy.

The organization noted that some thefts are “Owner Give-Ups” where the owner makes a false theft report after vehicles are driven into ponds, lakes or quarries, set on fire in sparsely populated areas, or driven into Mexico and abandoned.

NICB urged auto owners to follow a “layered approach” to auto theft prevention, never leaving keys in a car and equipping the vehicle with items such as a visible or audible warning device, a kill switch, fuel cut-offs, and smart keys and a tracking device.

Special Reports /

1995 Civic Tops Most Stolen List

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