Sure, folks are used to losing their shirts along the Strip, in Las Vegas. But that’s what you risk when you walk into a casino. But you’re also risking your car, it seems.The neon-hued city has one of the worst neighborhoods in the country when it comes to car thefts, reports the website NeighborhoodScout, using insurance industry data. To be more precise, the most serious problem is located in the Lubertha Johnson Park neighborhood of Las Vegas, where the car theft rate is running 164.76 vehicles per 1,000 – or nearly one in six.
That compares with a U.S. average of just three per 1,000, which still ends up costing an estimated $5.2 billion a year in owner losses and the checks insurance companies have to write. As bad as it sounds, however, Las Vegas doesn’t even have the worst neighborhood when it comes to car theft. That dubious honor goes to the West Commerce Street community in Dallas, where nearly one in four cars are stolen, 223.77 per 1,000, to be precise.
But Sin City makes up for losing out on the top spot by placing two other neighborhoods in the top 10: Dolittle Park, where a resident has a 1 in 8 chance of being hit by a car thief, and D Street, where Vegas bookies would give only slightly better odds.
Curiously, while crime problems are often linked to some of the nation’s older cities, like New York, Chicago or Detroit, they don’t even make the list, this time. In fact, only one East Coast neighborhood falls into the Top Ten, Charlotte, NC’s First Ward, where 103.54 of 1,000 vehicles are stolen.
In the Midwest, Milwaukee lands on the big time auto theft scoreboard, with its Triangle neighborhood recording 94.96 thefts per 1,000.
The rest of the Top Ten are all found out West, in California cities Oakland, Commerce, San Jose, and rounding out the list, Los Angeles, where 92.6 cars per 1,000 are heisted in the Jordan Downs neighborhood, the website reports.
Incidentally, car theft doesn’t just vary by community. It has its good days and bad. If you’re worried about your ride, you might want to put it under armed guard over the New Year’s holiday, which marks the worst time for car theft of the year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
On average, each vehicle stolen costs about $6,500 in terms of losses and/or insurance payouts. The good news, according to the NICB, is that car thefts are expected to slide again in 2011, which would mark the seventh year in a row.
The trade organization recommends that unless you’re looking to lure a thief to get rid of a clunker you park in a brightly lit area, make sure your vehicle is locked and put all packages and other valuables out of sight. Authorities report that while vehicle thefts may be down, the number of smash-and-grabs – aimed at snatching cellphones, portable navis or packages – has been going up during the economic downturn.
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