Phoenix Is Hot Car Heaven

Border and port cities continued to attract car thieves and posted the highest vehicle theft rates in the nation last year, an insurance industry group said.

The Phoenix area, followed by Miami, Fresno, Calif., Detroit, and Sacramento, Calif., were ranked as the top five metropolitan areas for auto thefts in 2001, The National Insurance Crime Bureau said in a report released Tuesday.

In Connecticut, Bridgeport ranked highest at 59, followed by Waterbury at 115, the New Haven-Meriden area at 123, and Hartford at 146.

The top 10 metropolitan areas in rates of vehicle theft were all at or within easy reach of U.S. borders and ports, according to the report.

"International demand is a major part of auto theft," said Michael Erwin, spokesman for the nonprofit group. "It's no longer the 16-year-old out joy-riding, it's the organized crime ring that's going to get the vehicle out of the country as quickly as possible."

FBI figures for metropolitan statistical areas show the Phoenix area had 1,081 reported auto thefts in 2001 for every 100,000 of its residents, the report said.

"A lot of (the vehicles) are taken to nearby Indian reservations or south to Mexico where the local and federal government can't go," Phoenix police Officer Kevin Morison said.

Other metropolitan areas in the top ten were Tucson, Ariz.; Tacoma, Wash.; Stockton-Lodi, Calif.; Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.; and Jersey City, N.J.

The Detroit area, which ranked second in 1999 and 2000, fell to fourth place with 884 reported auto thefts per 100,000 residents. And Flint, Mich., improved on an 11th place 2000 ranking to come in 31st in 2001.

The Stockton-Lodi, Calif., area jumped into the number eight spot from a 24th ranking last year. But Jackson, Miss., and Albuquerque, N.M., fell out of the top 10 to the 16th and 21st spots respectively.

"There are some communities that are getting a grip on auto theft," Erwin said. "But the list is pretty much staying the same."

Erwin said the most recent available FBI statistics show that auto theft rates increased 1.2 percent from 1999 to 2000.

That's the first increase in eight years, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade organization. According to that group, a vehicle is stolen every 27 seconds in the United States. And theft costs totaled nearly $7.8 billion in 2000.

Erwin said preliminary FBI statistics for the first half of 2002 show that auto thefts will continue to rise.