Seattle, Yakima stolen-car hot spots

Car thefts dropped in Washington last year, but they remain high, and the Seattle and Yakima areas ranked in the top 10 hot spots nationally for stolen vehicles, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reported.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area ranked sixth in the nation, with 31,256 thefts for a rate of 976 per 100,000 inhabitants, the report said. Yakima ranked ninth, with 2,156 thefts for a rate of 931 per 100,000 people.

Spokane was 17th nationally, with 3,389 thefts and a rate of 769 per 100,000.

Statewide, 44,563 vehicles were reported stolen last year, an 11.2 percent drop from 50,198 in 2005. Still, that's an average of 122 vehicles stolen every day, or more than five per hour, the Northwest Insurance Council said.

Nationally, the top hot spot for car thefts last year was Las Vegas, with 22,441 for a rate of 1,312 per 100,000 people.

The remaining top 10 car-theft locations in Washington, with the number of thefts and the rate per 100,000 residents, were: Longview, 468, 481 per 100,000; Mount Vernon-Anacortes, 416, 368; Olympia, 812, 355; Tri-Cities, 609, 276; Bellingham, 491, 268; Bremerton-Silverdale, 577, 240; and Wenatchee, 163, 156.