Vehicle theft down in Arizona in 2012
Fewer Arizonans had their vehicles stolen last year than in 2011. The numbers come from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. They find of the top ten hot spot spots nationwide for vehicle theft last year, eight were in California.
The others were in Washington State. In Arizona, the Tucson metro area ranked 44th in the country, at 332 thefts per 100,000 residents - the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area ranked 70th, with around 281 thefts per 100,000 residents. Both regions were down from 2011 – the Valley dropped ten spots.
The highest rate of theft in the country was in the Modesto, California, area, with around 816 thefts per 100,000 residents, followed by the Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California areas.
Nationwide, the organization found an increase in vehicle thefts in 2012, which ended a run of eight straight years of lower numbers.
