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See the original image at forbes.com

America's Car Theft Hot Spots

forbes.com — What are the three most important things when buying a home or setting up a business? Location, location, location. Turns out those are the three most important things to car thieves too.

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  • tykwondingo, on 07/11/2008, -2/+15West side, represent.

    • CosmicJustice, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Not so much west side as close to Mexico. Once it's across the border nobodies coming after it.
  • mbecker8, on 07/12/2008, -1/+50why can't forbes put lists all on one page?
    • JustinHopewell, on 07/13/2008, -0/+14Agreed. I hate loading a new page for every item on the list. The advertisers don't have a problem with it, though.
    • AchaIemoipas, on 07/13/2008, -1/+14Because they think people actually like useless gadgets and gizmos.

      It's like those ***** flash websites that take 45 seconds to load and you can't find anything right away and every single page has to load all kinds of crap to display a single pic. People do that because they think users like it.

      And the designers even reward themselves for making intricate, complex and stylish useless pieces of crap, regardless of actual user appreciation.

      The worst of the worst are the sites with some kind of animated character that talks to you while you're trying to read the damn thing. It's as annoying as someone trying to talk to you in person while you're on the phone.

      /end rant.
    • BobSutan, on 07/13/2008, -0/+12More pages = more ads.
      • mbecker8, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1the real answer right here. great point. haha
    • desertDenizen, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5Because they are short-sighted and want to rip off their advertisers, who, upon noticing that clickthrough rates are through the floor, will not renew their contracts, and moreover, will increasingly refuse to pay for anything but performance-based banners to avoid this sort of *****.
    • CosmicJustice, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Here's an idea. Stop clicking on links to Forbes when they are clearly marked FORBES.COM.
  • ironeus, on 08/01/2008, -0/+11Wow, a lot more in the Southwest than I would have thought. Meanwhile, everyone's telling me how bad Detroit is.
    • MikeDawg, on 07/13/2008, -0/+16Detroit isn't that bad. . . Well. . . As long as you keep your car moving, and don't stop at stop signs or stop lights.
    • jaredcat, on 07/13/2008, -0/+11In Detroit, you can't just roll the car down the highway 10 miles and be in Mexico...
      • sethorama99, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2In Tucson it takes about as long for the police to respond as it does to drive the car to the border.
      • splorpdotorg, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2Yeah, San Francisco is only 10 miles from Mexico. And so is Las Vegas. And Stockton. And Modesto. Oh, and Yakima, WA. Oh, wait, they're not. Hell, Yakima is more than 1,000 miles from Mexico.

        I'm not diminishing the effect of being near the Mexican border with regards to cars being stolen, but just note that 5 of the 10 listed are more than 300 miles from Mexico.
      • splorpdotorg, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1Yeah.... Do you know how far San Francisco is from Mexico? Yakima, WA? Hell, even Vegas is about 300 miles from Mexico. I'm not diminishing the nearness of the Mexican border with regards to car thefts, but LOOK AT A FREAKIN' MAP!

        Detroit is an armpit, anyway. People steal cars there so they can get out of the city faster.
      • ddaw735, on 07/14/2008, -0/+0I like Detroit ant that only happens on 7mile.
    • johnpaul191, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Let alone anything on the East Coast.
    • eggsovereasy, on 07/13/2008, -0/+7You get murdered in Detroit, but they don't take your car.
  • Texmurphy01, on 07/13/2008, -2/+6I would venture there are a lot of home boys in those areas.
    • Wuss, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3I disagree. I think the population in question are the esse's.
  • Tribunis, on 07/13/2008, -5/+14Surprisingly those states are all relative to our southern boarder
    • chrissku, on 07/13/2008, -3/+4Yakima Washington is relative to our southern border? Please explain?
      • DiggzDE, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2I just made fun of my friend for living there. Then I noticed my hometown was further up on the list. :(
      • kelmaster1, on 07/13/2008, -1/+10no, but Yakima is about 2/3rds Hispanic and the surrounding area is even more. It might as well be on the boarder, there's more Mexicans in eastern Washington than a lot of places in California. Yakima also lead the US in car break-ins and shoplifting! I had a POS truck that got broken into 6 times in Yakima and had the back of my truck shot at. That's what happens when a bunch of Mexicans move to one city... not to be racist :P
      • Tribunis, on 07/15/2008, -0/+1Thanks for that :)

        added you
    • MiamiRox, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1What the hell does that have to do with anything?
  • JustinHopewell, on 07/13/2008, -3/+8California, land of bloated real estate price, crashing sub-prime mortgage market, bad movies, and auto-theft capital of the country!

    But the beaches are nice.
    • MicroBerto, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2Worth every penny if you live close enough to the beach to take advantage of it (I surf or play volleyball daily).

      Beyond that, I see absolutely no reason to live out here if you're not close to the beach or not trying to get into a specific industry (movie industry or silicon valley).
  • GrammerPants, on 07/13/2008, -1/+5Were I used to live used to be the car theft capital of Canada. Now thanks to the bait car program, it's no where near the top. Plus the videos are funny to watch.
  • elnerdo, on 07/13/2008, -0/+12I'm very surprised to not see ANYTHING from NJ here. No Camden, Paterson or Newark.
    • kelmaster1, on 07/13/2008, -2/+6nah, they just lead the country in assault, rape and murder.
  • bkerkay, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6I grew up in NJ and remember it being the worst in the country. 6 of top 10 was in NJ and 4 in the area where I lived. It was so bad they were stealing/car jacking Police cars. Glad to see it's not the case anymore... but that's thanks to the task force that was created and they cracked down hard.
    • funk1999, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3I think you are confusing real life with the movie New Jersey Drive.

      "Jason and Midget are two young, black teenagers living in Newark,New Jersey, the unofficial car theft capital of the world. Their favourite pastime is that of everybody in their neighbourhood: stealing cars and joyriding. The trouble starts when they steal a police car and the cops launch a violent offensive that involves beating and even shoo- ting suspects."

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113967/plotsummary
      • DVision2406, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5The movie was based on the car theft epidemic here in Newark!! And they were stealing ANYTHING with wheels from police vehicles to wheelchairs until the auto squad was created. Then they just started ramming them off the street!!!
    • swiftheart, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1The task force made a difference, but I'd suggest that the New Jersey car thieves and the Southwest car thieves are different and are motivated by different things, which explains what's going on now.

      The NJ thieves were/are more into expensive vehicles which may be kept intact for export or title washing. The Southwest car thieves are into older used vehicles whose universal parts are lucrative.

      Essentially, the NJ thieves have moved on to other things because theft of newer vehicles is so damn complex while their Southwest cousins are happy parting out mid 90s Civics--of which there are plenty in places like Modesto California.

  • wal9000, on 07/13/2008, -0/+8What are the "per capita" numbers? Are they saying that these cities have over 800 thefts per person?
    • desertDenizen, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4I was wondering about that too.
    • Linkin4, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4Yeah that makes no sense to me either, even if it was 1 theft per that number, it means the countdown was backwards...
      • bravo1995, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4Maybe it's per 100,000 people. That's a common number to use.
    • johnpaul191, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3What they tried to say was number of thefts in relation to number of people.
      Those numbers shift everything, i know it makes a big difference for murders. Based on "per capita" numbers, the most dangerous places are not the big cities, but some pretty small towns.
  • kelmaster1, on 07/13/2008, -0/+16Hooray Yakima! probably the smallest city on the list, have had my car broken into six times in the period 4 years in Yakima... One thing these cities all have in common? Take a wild guess and then go check the demographics of each one of these cities. It's all illegals and Mexicans.
  • stinger666, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6People seem to like to steal cars in the desert
    • desertDenizen, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5No rust damage, for one thing. They deliver them to all over the U.S.
    • CosmicJustice, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1They deliver them to Mexico.
  • Fast05GT, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4Yea that is alot from the West Coast/South West. NYC is no where on that list?
    • DVision2406, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Car chases in bumper to bumper traffic doesn't work!!!
    • umbrae, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6Well, thieves here in NYC would steal cars, but they don't want to pay to park it afterwards.
    • scalded, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1No one wants to steal a cab.
  • Vorin, on 07/13/2008, -1/+19#1: Liberty City.
  • CHANNELOCK, on 07/13/2008, -8/+12Mexicans.
    If their not mowing your lawn their stealing your car
    • lanzemurdok, on 07/13/2008, -3/+1Oh us crazy mexicans.
    • antoniuk, on 07/13/2008, -5/+3White people... If they are not killing your planet, they are making stupid ass remarks about the people who wipe their lazy asses.
    • sethorama99, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4CHANNELOCK

      If he's not confusing "they're" and "their," he's probably confusing "there" as well.
    • CHANNELOCK, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1
      Affirmative to all of the above
  • KLowD9x, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5Phoenix. Holy hell. If you had a Honda or Toyota, it was guaranteed to get stolen.

    While I was going to school there, about 4 people in my class alone had their stuff stolen.
  • Regulator980, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3110. Tuscon, Arizona
    9. Yakima, Wash.
    8. Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, Ariz.
    7. Albuquerque, N.M.
    6. Laredo, Texas
    5. San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, Calif.
    4. Stockton, Calif.
    3. San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos, Calif.
    2. Las Vegas/Paradise, Nev.
    1. Modesto, Calif.

    California FTW!?
    • HxChris91, on 07/13/2008, -0/+9Thank you for the non ad-invested anti time-consuming list.
    • Virgule, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1I head there is a supercar club in California whose combined assets (cars alone) are worth more than your average 3rd world country.
  • Cyberdactyl, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4Hey. . .when you're first here in the states and you need a nice cash bundle to get started, stealing a nice '07 Nissan Maxima will get you started nicely.
  • kthoma22, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2No Newark or Camden NJ? That's surprising.
  • petebert, on 07/13/2008, -1/+11stop posting these ***** 10 page forbes lists!
  • duggdowncatisad, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5Ugh, fail slideshow is fail. Come on Forbes. Anyway, in case you don't want to sit through it, the 10 cities are Yakima WA, Vegas, and 8 places in states that border Mexico (car thieves like to get the stolen loot out of the country where it's harder to trace).
  • Poon007, on 07/13/2008, -0/+7Go figure...all in the southwest and close to Mexico where it is easy to sell fast. DUH!
    • sethorama99, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1It's more about the loss of the vehicles. They can be recovered often times but if they're in another country then it's a total loss.
  • sgvprelude, on 07/13/2008, -1/+6The situation perpetuates itself. Stop buying stolen parts people! If someone steals your parts, and you buy replacements from ebay, just make sure it's not stolen. By reducing the demand on stolen parts, thieves would no longer find stealing your parts profitable.
  • antoniuk, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3Modesto on top again!
  • lohphat, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1Um..."per capita" means "divided by population". Can someone explain how you get thefts per capita in the 800-1000 range?
    • TheVector, on 07/13/2008, -1/+0Yeah really, 1000 thefts per person, how is that even possible?
  • JoshuaLowe, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Gentleman of non-caucasian ethnicity pilfered my penny-farthing!


  • Elliuotatar, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2I wonder if Forbes' avdertisers realise that 50% of the pageviews they're paying for are going unseen because their stupid slideshow automatically starts running when you load the page, even if you've loaded it in a tab or window which you're not currently viewing.
  • twmulloy, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1mexicans?
  • jasonalangraves, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2Wow, all of these places have some of the nations highest Mexican populations as well. Washington, generally does not have a huge Mexican population...except in Yakima, and sure enough, Yakima, Washington is on the list.

    But why do they need to steal so many cars when they can fit so many of themselves into just one?
    • tomarocco, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Yakima is like over 50% hispanic. Wenatchee is getting up there, too.
  • tomarocco, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1It's ironic how the population stealing the most cars are also driving away with them the slowest.
  • oxeneer, on 07/13/2008, -0/+0Is that modesto picture of someone with a tire iron about to go steal a car or what?
  • cornerbodega, on 07/14/2008, -0/+1So many anti cali stories on digg lately.
  • Czechxican, on 07/16/2008, -0/+1MODESTO FTW!!!!
    Haha...
    Modesto is a car theft hot spot because there are a lot of low income migrant workers driving older model cars like Honda Civics and accords. Because of that, these older cars are easy prey because they are often not properly locked up and thieves know they can make money off the parts by selling them to other people who own the same model.
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