Top Cities for Car Theft

My siblings live in the Bay Area, and I always say I like it there, but could not live there. This is a list of the top cities for car theft in 2013. This is of all cities in the US.

1. Bakersfield, California
2. Fresno, California
3. Modesto, California
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California
5. Stockton-Lodi, California
6. Redding, California
7. Spokane-Spokane Valley, Washington
8. Vallejo-Fairfield, California
9. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
10. Yuba City, California

Bakersfield is North of LA, and Spokane is in Washington, and the rest are basically the Bay Area. Wow!

Rent is so high in the bay area, you have to steal a car to get out of there.

I'm a bit surprised to see Spokane on that list. My mom lives there, and it strikes me as being a completely square law abiding ,rule observing city.

OTOH, assuming that this is a per capita list, spokane is small enough that one good theft ring could probably put them on the map.

Speaking of Spokane and cars, I'm always impressed by all the old Japanese tiny I see just out and driving around when I visit there. Stuff just doesn't rust there, even if it's been buried in a horse pasture for 50 years.

In reply to HappyAndy:

Spokane has a huge meth (and other drugs) problem due to some major industries shutting down or scaling back over the years.

Get a Volvo. Nobody is stealing them and they are EVERYWHERE in CA.

yeah, that is where you can still hop in a 1970s car that hasn't rusted yet and still runs, strip two wires, start it, and drive away.

I think I'm seeing a pattern...

shocking that not one city from florida

Redding is a bit north of the Bay Area. Almost as far north as Bakersfield is south.

turboswede wrote: In reply to HappyAndy: Spokane has a huge meth (and other drugs) problem due to some major industries shutting down or scaling back over the years.

I was just going to say this. I grew up about 2 hours south of Spokane. I think auto theft has a direct correlation to drugs. In my hometown, Spokane is the closest "scary big city".

In reply to stanger_missle:

Where are you from? Clarkston?

Well, Stockton and Modesto aren't exactly in the Bay Area either. They're also not exactly nice places and suffered massively during the housing bust.

Notice that Nelson is pointing to the left, because California!

trigun7469 wrote: shocking that not one city from florida

You WOULD think Miami would be a playa.

In reply to T.J.:

Just across the river, on the "better" side; Lewiston

When I lived in the University area of Charlotte, everything that wasn't nailed, chained, or concreted down was stolen before you could turn your back.

My brother and friends had all of their stuff stolen. My one friend had a grand cherokee. It got so bad that he just left the CD player out and his doors open all the time. If he tried to lock his doors, someone would bust out a window to get inside. He had the worst luck ever.

stanger_missle wrote: In my hometown, Spokane is the closest "scary big city".

As someone who has lived, and worked, in the Philly / Camden / Chester / Wilmington DE area most of my life I find that hilarious!

My guess is that the authorities in Spokane are too honest to realize that they shouldn't report Every single crime, I'm pretty sure that's how Philly, and Wilmington DE, and Baltimore, and DC, and Miami have managed to stay off of this list. LOL.

spitfirebill wrote:

trigun7469 wrote: shocking that not one city from florida

You WOULD think Miami would be a playa.

BTW, this would would be based on the number of vehicles reported having been stolen.

In reply to HappyAndy:

It was kinda tongue-in-cheek. It cracks me up whenever I hear someone talk about how bad crime is in Spokane. 99% of the time, they have never lived anywhere else or in a city with more than 30,000 people. I have lived in a few larger cities, namely Omaha and Tampa but I'm sure there are worse places (as far as crime). I'm glad that I was able to get out and see the world even if to just widen my perspective.

Glad to see StL didn't make this one. Honestly you don't hear of it a ton here.

This reminds me of a guy who came over to see our guards to ask if we had his car being stolen on video. I am one of the few that know how to review video on our system, so I watched as a guy took no more than 30 seconds to steal a 2004 Impala. I called the guy and suggested he doesn't leave the key in the car anymore. Pretty sure it was a insurance scam anyway.

That list does seem a wee bit suspicious. Is that a % of cars stolen (e.g. per car) or a total number? The only reason I could see CA being so popular otherwise is its adjacency to Mexico, but then again Texas, AZ ect. also share that feature.

I guarantee you CA is the top location for stolen private planes also, but it also has something like 60% of all the private airplanes in the world (!)

In reply to stanger_missle:

Agree that Lewiston is on the better side of the river.

trigun7469 wrote: shocking that not one city from florida

Florida man can only do so many things.

Not sure what the criteria was, and yes, us right-coasters lump anything north of LA as "the bay area". LOL

pinchvalve wrote: 2. Fresno, California 3. Modesto, California 5. Stockton-Lodi, California 6. Redding, California 10. Yuba City, California

These 5 are considered Central Valley by those of us living in the Bay Area. I am guessing a lot of theft is drug related.