Top 100 Metro Areas for Vehicle Theft: NICB’s ‘Hot Spots’

When it comes to vehicle theft, California’s on top. California owns eight of the top 10 hot spots for vehicle theft in 2015, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) latest Hot Spots report.

California’s Modesto metropolitan statistical area (MSA) had the nation’s highest per capita vehicle theft rate in 2015, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) latest Hot Spots report. Albuquerque’s metro area had the second highest rate in the country.

NICB’s Hot Spots report examines vehicle theft data obtained from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) for each of the nation’s MSAs, which often include areas much larger than the cities for which they are named. For example, the number one spot, the Modesto, Calif. MSA, includes all thefts within the entire county of Stanislaus, not just the city of Modesto.

NICB notes that in a population-based survey, an area with a much smaller population and a moderate number of thefts can—and often does—have a higher theft rate than an area with a much more significant vehicle theft problem and a larger population to absorb it.

For 2015, the 100 MSAs with the highest vehicle theft rates were:

Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau

When the FBI released preliminary, January-June 2015 crime data earlier this year, vehicle theft was up one percent across the nation. That increase is reflected in this Hot Spots report and the trend may hold when the final FBI 2015 crime data is published in the fall. Notwithstanding these occasional increases, vehicle thefts are down dramatically around the nation over the last several years. Nonetheless, the reasons vehicles are stolen remain the same. Older vehicles are stolen primarily for their parts value while newer, high-end vehicles are often shipped overseas or, after some disguising, sold to an innocent buyer locally, according to NICB.

The NICB is supported by property/casualty insurance companies.