Nevada Residents Among Highest At Risk For Car Theft
Nevada is on the top of a lot of lists. Most casinos, best buffets, best place for a Bachelor Party, to name a few. Now we’re on another one that’s not such good news for Nevada residents. The Silver State has been reported to have the fourth highest rate of stolen cars in the country.
Nevada Residents Some Of Most Likely In Country To Get Car Stolen
A study recently conducted by personal injury and maritime law firm Scott Vicknair broke down the numbers when it comes to car theft in the U.S. Using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they collected information regarding a ten-year span, specifically 2012 to 2022. They then looked at the data to determine how many cars in each state were reported stolen during the timeframe.
Since different states have different population sizes, the data analysts compared the number of stolen cars per 100,000 vehicles in each state. Then they ranked which states had the highest number of vehicle thefts against that 100,000 cars. And the study revealed something unnerving about not only Nevada, but the entire western part of the country.
Top 5 States With Most Vehicle Theft Are All In Western U.S.
Well, this is not something we want to be known for. Every single state in the top five that came back in the study are in the backyard of Nevada residents.
Colorado – Colorado came back as number one in the study, with 851.70 car thefts per 100,000 vehicles in the ten-year timeframe. Between 2012 and 2022, 45,883 vehicle thefts were reported in the Centennial State, making Colorado the place where you are most likely to get your car stolen.
Washington – Colorado took the lead by a lot. The second place went to Washington State, with a reported 731.70 vehicle thefts per 100,000. Between 2012 and 2022, the Evergreen State had 49,777 car owners seeing red when their vehicles were stolen.
Oregon – Not far from Washington was the number three state in the study for vehicle theft. Oregon had 618.70 thefts per 100,000 during the timeframe. Which equated to 23,386 stolen cars in that ten-year span.
Nevada – And Nevada is right behind Oregon with 618.40 thefts per 100,000 vehicles. Between 2012 and 2022, Nevada residents reported 15,588 stolen vehicles. And this doesn’t count all the stolen catalytic converters Nevada has experienced over the years.
New Mexico – New Mexico completed the top five with their reported 593.30 theft per 100,000. That amounted to 11,448 actual stolen cars during the decade analyzed.
The remaining states in the top ten, in order, were Missouri, Hawaii, California, Tennessee, and Texas. What’s really frustrating is that these statistics came from before the influx of new Nevada residents after the pandemic. So we’ll see if we climb that list for the years to come.
For now, use this as information to be more vigilant when it comes to your car. Park in the garage, if you can and invest in an alarm for your vehicle.
Also, try not to purchase a car that’s known for being a target for thieves. According to the Insurance Information Institute, that includes the Honda Civic (’00), Accord (’97) and CR-V (’01), the Hyundai Sonata (’13) and Elantra (’17), Kia Optima (’15), Toyota Camry (’21) and the full-sized pickups made by Ford (’06), Chevy (’04) and GMC (’05).
We can’t completely stop car theft, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make ourselves a less-likely target.
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