The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) on Thursday released the 2013 edition of its car theft "hot spots" list, which examines vehicle theft statistics from coast to coast to determine the worst U.S. cities for auto theft.
In short, California is a bad place to own a car, at least if it's one that you want to keep.
According to the NICB report, for the first time ever nine of the top 10 U.S. cities for auto theft are in the Golden State, including the top city, Bakersfield. In 2012, eight of the top ten metro areas were in California, up from seven in 2011. Hey, at least things are looking up in Modesto, 2012′s #1 metro area for car thefts.
The good news, for California and elsewhere, is that vehicle thefts were down overall in 2013, following a slight uptick in thefts in 2012. NICB said that this is in line with the FBI's 2013 auto theft data, which showed a 3.2% decrease in vehicle thefts in the first half of the year.
The full Hot Spots report is available at www.nicb.org.
For 2013, the 10 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with the highest vehicle theft rates (#1 being the worst) were:
#10. Yuba City, Calif.
Thefts: 930
Rate: 551.31
2012 Rank: 31st
#9. San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, Calif.
Thefts: 10,925
Rate: 569.12
2012 Rank: 7th
#8. Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.
Thefts: 2,540
Rate: 597.95
2012 Rank: 8th
#7. Spokane-Spokane Valley, Wash.
Thefts: 3,205
Rate: 598.26
2012 Rank: 9th
#6. Redding, Calif.
Thefts: 1,120
Rate: 625.77
2012 Rank: 10th
#5. Stockton-Lodi, Calif.
Thefts: 4,463
Rate: 633.61
2012 Rank: 4th
#4. San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward, Calif.
Thefts: 29,326
Rate: 649.34
2012 Rank: 6th
#3. Modesto, Calif.
Thefts: 3,565
Rate: 678.41
2012 Rank: 1st
#2. Fresno, Calif.
Thefts: 6,750
Rate: 706.61
2012 Rank: 2nd
#1. Bakersfield, Calif.
Thefts: 6,267
Rate: 725.24
2012 Rank: 3rd
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