Photo: TheDigitalWay from Pixabay
Having your car stolen could be an excruciating experience whether your car’s theft is covered by insurance or not. If that’s a comfort, a recent study shows the car theft has been declining in the past 30 years, although an increase was observed recently. It turns out there are states where thieves are extremely busy stealing cars and other states where your car is quite safe actually.
New research from the insurance company Uswitch shows the car theft rate in the U.S. was at 246 stolen vehicles per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020. This seems like a good deal compared to the 657+ figure from the ‘90s. The bad news is the number of stolen cars has seen a steady increase in the past five years and is now above the 2010 level of 239 cars stolen per 100,000 inhabitants. The lowest rate was recorded in 2015, at 222,2 vehicle thefts per 100,000 people, but that time seems now forgotten.
As revealed by the Uswitch study, it pays to have good car insurance if you live in Colorado. This is the place in the United States where it is most likely to have your car stolen, with more than 524 cars stolen per 100,000 inhabitants. It’s by far the highest car theft rate in the U.S., with more than 100 cars above the rates of New Mexico and California, which came second and third in this bleak top. We are not surprised to see California ranking so high. Recently, Californians invented a new method to stave off the thieves that break into cars to steal things – leave the cars open to show there’s nothing to steal.
At the other end of the scale, we have Vermont with the lowest rate of vehicle theft per capita. Only 42.4 cars per 100,000 people are the subject of thieves in this state, with Maine and New Hampshire following closely at 63.8 and 76.4. It looks like the northeastern part of the country is the safest when it comes to car thefts, while the opposite corner is the one with the highest rates of vehicle theft.
No matter where you live, it pays to take care of your car and your valuables at all times. This means parking in a secure location, keeping the doors locked, and not keeping the car key near the front door of your house, as radio relaying makes the easiest job for the thieves.
As revealed by the Uswitch study, it pays to have good car insurance if you live in Colorado. This is the place in the United States where it is most likely to have your car stolen, with more than 524 cars stolen per 100,000 inhabitants. It’s by far the highest car theft rate in the U.S., with more than 100 cars above the rates of New Mexico and California, which came second and third in this bleak top. We are not surprised to see California ranking so high. Recently, Californians invented a new method to stave off the thieves that break into cars to steal things – leave the cars open to show there’s nothing to steal.
At the other end of the scale, we have Vermont with the lowest rate of vehicle theft per capita. Only 42.4 cars per 100,000 people are the subject of thieves in this state, with Maine and New Hampshire following closely at 63.8 and 76.4. It looks like the northeastern part of the country is the safest when it comes to car thefts, while the opposite corner is the one with the highest rates of vehicle theft.
No matter where you live, it pays to take care of your car and your valuables at all times. This means parking in a secure location, keeping the doors locked, and not keeping the car key near the front door of your house, as radio relaying makes the easiest job for the thieves.
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