California Wins Car Theft "Honor"

And the "winner" is ...

California!

That's right -- the Golden State has been dubbed the car thft capital of the U.S., according to data released June 21 by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

The NICB reported that a staggering eight of the 10 lowest rated U.S. cities with the highest per capita vehicle theft rates in 2010 are in California. Those cities include (not in order):

* Sacramento
* San Francisco
* Fresno
* Modesto
* Bakersfield
* Vallejo
* Stockton
* Visalia

Also in the bottom 10 are Spokane, Washington and Yakima, Washington.

The list was developed by compiling the number of reported vehicle thefts in a metropolitan statistical area, dividing that figure by the area's estimated population and then multiplying that number by 100,000.

There were 367 metropolitan areas examined. The safest area was State College, Pennsylvania, which had less than 0.3 vehicle thefts per 1,000 residents.

Fresno, California ranked last, with some 8.1 vehicle thefts per 1,000 residents.

Preliminary crime statistics for 2010 published last month by the FBI showed a 7.2 percent drop in vehicle thefts from the previous year.

The complete NICB report is available online at https://www.nicb.org/newsroom/nicb_campaigns/hot_spots/Hot-Spots-2010