Where is a parked car not a parked car? The answer is California, where your vehicle will magically transform into an empty spot with a scattering of window glass on the pavement.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) just released its 2015 vehicle theft Hot Spots report, and the Golden State gets top billing, with eight of its cities listed in the top 10.
Modesto, California takes the gold medal for car theft, with a per capita rate of 756 thefts per 100,000 people. Bakersfield, Salinas and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward also placed in the top five. The two non-California cities in the top 10 were Albuquerque, New Mexico (second place, with 733 thefts per 100,000) and Pueblo, Colorado (seventh place, up from 24th last year).
The other California hot spots were Stockton-Lodi, Merced, Riverside, San Bernadino-Ontario, and Vellejo-Fairfield. While the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area had the most total vehicle thefts (57,247), the area’s sizable population kept it out of the top 10 when the crimes were measured on a per capita basis.
If you’re looking for somewhere to live where the only dangers to your car are falling nuts, hail, rust and depreciation, head to Altoona, Pennsylvania. That city recorded a per capita rate of 30 thefts per 100,000 people. Next in line in the safe zone were New York cities Glen Falls, Watertown-Fort Drum, and Kingston. Harrisonburg, Virginia placed fifth safest with a rate of 32.79 thefts per 100,000.
According to FBI statistics, vehicle thefts rose one percent over the first half of 2015. The NICB recommends drivers use four layers of defense when parking their car, with the first layer being common sense — that’s the thing you use when you decide not to park the Civic under the overpass, next to the broken streetlight, with the windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition.
Don’t be that guy.
The other layers include warning, immobilizing and tracking devices, though the following anti-theft device can’t be condoned, nor is it supported by existing legislation:
[Image: jon collier/Flickr]
Most annoying thing about that video clip is how the title text zooms forward and is not at all centered in the screen.
Looks like the burglar’s friend had a big passing of gas when the car exploded, which knocked him over independently of it.
DenverMike will be here for further frame-by-frame shortly.
I remember seeing that in the theater when it first came out. It got a lot of laughs in the theater.
This was during an especially corny time for 007, right? I mean not Tim D. corny, but still.
I rather thought that film was a bit of a rebound from 70s awfulness. Moore’s films got progressively better though The Living Daylights. Dalton was just incredibly boring.
License to Kill is my favorite Bond movie.
Re: the pic
I’m sure the manual transmission was enough to foil the would-be car thief ;)
Yup so they just stole some CD’s instead.
Back logs of rape kits and unsolved property crimes but the police have enough man power to get 4 squads on the scene of a dude trying to resist arrest.
It is worth pointing out that a lot of people keep many things in their car to make it worth it. I have neighbors in my area that post on nextdoor complaining about vehicle break-ins where a laptop or tools are stolen out of their cars.
17300 vehicle thefts and burglaries (not the same, but that’s the statistics I find) in Norway makes for 346 incidents per 100000 inhabitants. That’s right in the middle of the above numbers.
https://www.ssb.no/sosiale-forhold-og-kriminalitet/statistikker/lovbrudda/aar/2015-04-15
I remember when I was a kid someone tried to patent a flamethrower mounted under a BMW 7 as an anti theft device. It made the evening news.
There is a company in South Africa that actually installs those – as well as spring loaded blades that will take out the ankles of a potential car jacker…
Why run for the border when you can drive?
José es inteligente.
This would imply an illegal wants to return to Mexico of his own accord, in a stolen car. Unless I’ve missed something in this joke?
Unfortunately it’s not much of a joke. The National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates that approximately 1/3 of unrecovered stolen vehicles end up in Mexico. Also, according to them the states that border Mexico have a theft rate of nearly double the national average.
Apparantly, customs doesnt monitor what goes out nearly as closely as what comes in.
Interesting, did not know that.
10 years ago a very brave reporter sneaked around Mexican federal police stations and wrote down VIN numbers of trucks and SUVs parked next to them – surprise! Most of them were stolen from the USA.
Do you suppose a 98 Corolla beater is safe from thieves?
Do you leave iPads and jewelry in the front seat? If so, then no.
Do magazines and a rosary qualify?
Holy Santos protect thee!
My understanding is those are the most likely to be stolen as the primary market is parts.
What jmo said.
Numbers from 2013:
Honda Accord, 53,995
Honda Civic, 45,001
Chevrolet Silverado, 27,809
Ford F-150, 26,494
Toyota Camry, 14,420
Dodge/Ram Pickup, 11,347
Dodge Caravan, 10,911
Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee, 9,272
Toyota Corolla, 9,010
Nissan Altima, 8,892
Man I wish somebody would steal MY Altima! I’d get way more from the claim than I would selling it on Craigslist!
I’m in So Fl.where car thievery has kept me from getting a used Civic instead of the dull Corolla
You are a smart cookie.
I have a 1997 Civic LX 4-door 5-speed manual here in shaved-key Seattle (you can steal most 1990s Hondas with one of a handful of shaved ignition keys which all the car thieves have). So far, so good. But it is bone stock, with plastic wheel covers, with the sewing-machine-duty base D16Y7 engine.
I’ve been to Altoona once. It’s a very economically depressed place. The low rate of car theft is a surprise to me unless enterprising thieves are smart enough to not steal the beater cars that dominate the roads there. Might as well steal a good car since the penalty is the same.
I don’t know if I would consider Altoona economically depressed. Maybe there aren’t alot of exciting things going on if you come from a big city, but industry has largely stayed the same if not marginally improved.
http://www.abcdcorp.org/2014/03/altoona-pa-earns-a-1-ranking-from-site-selection-magazine/
to some people, any city which isn’t a crowded, smelly metropolis full of noise, lights, and hatred is “economically depressed.”
Yeah, maybe compared to Johnstown, Altoona isn’t economically depressed. But Altoona’s a town that was literally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad and it essentially died with it.
The Altoona Works employed something like 16,000 people at it’s peak in the 1920s and ’30s. Norfolk Southern still operates a repair shop there with around 1,100 employees. Losing 15,000 jobs is a death blow to a city that peaked at 82,000 people. Today, the population isn’t much more than half that and the primary employer, like many failing rust belt cities, is now healthcare. Based on the accounts of my family in Blair County, the #2 industry is drugs.
Central PA is pretty sad place.
Mason,
I may be confusing Johnstown and Altoona.
A lot of Pennsylvania is economically depressed, especially the small upstate towns like Hazleton and Tamaqua and places like Wayne.
I went to Uniontown and it definitely haz a sad.
Where’s Uniontown?
Everything leading up to Knoebels is pretty sad too, especially since Centralia is near there.
The mining counties in NE PA never really came out of the great depression especially with the decline of anthracite coal mining after WWII. I still have some relatives near Wilkes Barre. These towns are slowly shrinking away. Most of the young people leave for better employment opportunities. Those that stay really have to scramble to get even a mediocre paying job there. Very little crime except for drugs, but that’s pretty much everywhere in the US now.
Y’all just don’t know how to live off the land. Live simple.
City life for everyone or FTW!
Uniontown is a couple hours S/SE of Philly, and is the nearest medium-sized place with hotels and such to Fallingwater. That’s why I was there.
Pittsburgh. A couple of hours south/southeast of Philadelphia puts you in the Atlantic Ocean.
I refused to be confined to your narrow-minded approach to cartography!
Lol, but yes Pittsburgh.
Thank you Obama and all of your illegal alien ilk.
i don’t suppose that Uber or Lyft are gonna cut down on car thefts?
I don’t know about thefts, but DC was a prime area for smash and grabs during the ’90s. I had two–someone stole a boom box from my then probably 14 year old 1977 Corolla. And around ’96 someone busted into my Saturn and took a back pack with a Nikon F3 in it.
While DC has gotten vastly safer overall, I’ve noticed an increasing number of piles of shattered side window glass along residential side streets. Besides cell phone brackets I should probably put in the glove box, I leave nothing in sight in our cars that didn’t come from the factory.
Someone tried to steal my Toyota Camry from a park-n-ride in Washington state. Good thing the POS wouldn’t start (it died on me which is why I had left it there in the first place), so they settled for busting out almost all of the windows and stealing my CDs.
They couldn’t just stop at one window? Sounds like they were pissed.
Good thing you have your uber-reliable Ford Taurus with the Vulcan 3.0 liter V6 that’s the most reliable car in history (8900% more reliable than the POS Toyota Camry) to rely on at times like those, bro!
Amen. May the God of Speed bless each and every of our personal biases.
Can’t… stop… laughing… Almost spewed lunch on my monitors, thanks DW. Facebook recently reminded me that it was 6 years ago last month that the Vulcan in my ’01 Taurus left me stranded on the side of the interstate for the second, and final, time. It had electrical shorts in the main engine wiring harness that would eat the “PCM” fuse and shut the engine off while driving. On the interstate. Twice. Between that and its occasional tendency to diesel after turning the ignition off and removing the key… Yeah. Great American iron.
Sold it for my first Maxima and never looked back (or had a car that wouldn’t immediately start). Long live the 6MT VQ!
VQ = one of the best motors of all time, used in a huge variety of Nissan/Infinity platforms, highly tunable, reliable in stock form, and durable.
Had a super cool uncle-in-law (now deceased) who let me drive his cherished Nissan Maxima through much of Georgia on the way to Florida in 1995 with my cousin before I even had a license to drive (I was an excellent unlicensed driver!).
Pueblo, Colorado – did a lot of stoners move there from out of state? Anyway, it’s got a crime rate higher than the national average:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo,_Colorado#Crime
Get a manual transmission, that will slow the thieves down. You still might get your windows smashed.
A stick shift won’t save you if you’re driving an Accord or Civic. Honda fanboys (and by proxy, thieves) can drive a clutch.
The airbag will kill him when he wrecks. Rough but effective justice.
all the more reason I’m glad I don’t (and never will) live in California. I even turned down a job opportunity because it would have relocated me there.
I sure did enjoy this site before every thread became the CoreyDL hour.
Seriously man, back up off the keyboard.
Please let me know how often I’m allowed to comment. It’s up to you to decide.
Also, who are you?
Looking at his name I’m guessing he’s a Mercedes enthusiast, which would explain his frustration.
Been reading the site since the GM death watch but never felt compelled to register and comment until now. Figured I’d get this kind of response, so carry on.
How did you -want- the response to go? What was the ideal here?
to take a shot at you then act like you’re the bad guy for responding.
Ohh, right right.
While BAFO and HDC sail right by.
The gods are chuckling.
He’s been relegated to half hour status since the 1st of the year. His Nielsen ratings weren’t high enough last season.
I’m afraid of being sold off to the CW soon.
VH1.
Maybe there’s a huge pipeline running south from CA, but also very likely (as in other states where thefts have spiked in the past) that these vehicles are being cut up. Takes willful ignorance on the part of law enforcement to let this go on very long, if you know what I mean.
As a Stockton resident, a little disappointed Modesto got the crown, we’ll have to take it back next year. I do appreciate the fact, though, that the entire 209 area code is represented on the list. Very proud.
Lived here 30 years, never had a car tampered with, much less stolen. Having a manual transmission on a car helps wherever you may live.
Having a manual transmission should cut one’s insurance rate by 99% of the insurance premium that’s charged for “vehicle theft” as only 1% of the population (including auto thieves) are intelligent enough to know how to operate a manual gearbox.
As the Diaz brothers would say, STOCKTON, MOTHER F*#KERS!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_858
There’s a better way, Paul! Join us, you won’t regret it.
If I could afford to live comfortably in the 858, I would be there in a heartbeat! Thank you for the invite. Enjoy living in paradise!
Oh you’ve a problem with your third-rate city?
Move to one of the most expensive places in the US instead! Easy!
What you need is the Trunk Monkey vehicle theft prevention system, because sometimes, getting your vehicle back isn’t enough.
Now that’s a funny SNL commercial right there . . .
Exactly why I leave nothing my car except my Oakley’s(but those are 5 years old now, does anyone even steal sunglasses and if they do, why?) and a few CD’s. At least when I’m in town and such. I guess they could steal my empty pop bottles.. there worth a whole 5 cents apiece..
Admittedly I am pretty bad at just leaving the keys in and windows down with all my stuff inside when I go home.. but I also live in the middle of nowhere.. so I don’t feel as worried.
I live in San Francisco with 2 cars. In the last year I had 4 vehicle break-ins, 2 in each car. One was inside my own building garage. I thank proposition 47 for that.
P.S. cops are somewhat useless although I do know the last guy who broke into the garage got caught with my casino card and is enjoying jail. Until judge decides he did it because “drugs made him do it” and releases him again.
I heard an interview with the head of the LAPD car theft unit in the late ’80s/early90s, during which he was asked what he does to keep his car from being stolen. His one line answer “I drive a Matador”.
Matador; the only AMC product that looks better WITHOUT bumpers.
Victims learn the hard way or not at all.
I live in a rural area in SE MI. Our area is somewhat upscale compared to the rest of the county (Lenawee) due to a man made lake with nicer homes around it. We have been here for 25 years. Every 4-6 years we get a rash of smash and grab (or just open the unlocked door)thefts. I attribute it to teens out to grab what they can. They usually nab the perps eventually. As there is not much other crime, these thefts get attention from LEO. Things quiet down then starts back up when a new crop of opportunists reaches the right age.
When I lived in the City of Detroit-no cops ever came out for auto B & E or thefts. For that matter, they did not come out for home B & E either. The only time I remember a quick response was when my boss started firing at a crack head trying to steal his car. They arrested my boss for discharge of a weapon in the city limits.