Bay Area ranked among highest car thefts in USA list

Hamza Fahmy
·2 min read

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — With nearly 100,000 car thefts in eight months, California is the state with the highest rates of car thefts in the nation, MarketWatch reports in its most recent study.

Despite California being the highest ranking, no Bay Area metros made the list of the five highest-ranking metros for car thefts, the study reports.

Part of the Bay Area, marked in the study as San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, ranked eighth for metros with the highest rates of car thefts nationwide.

According to a study by the Insurance Information Institute, SF-Oakland-Berkeley experienced nearly 700 thefts for every 100,000 residents in 2023.

Vehicle engulfed in flames on Bay Bridge

The study reports that Bakersfield was the only other California metro to make the top 10 list, topping the Bay Area and ranking in second place nationwide.

The study reports that Colorado had the most metros related to car thefts, with Pueblo at the top, Denver-Aurora-Lakewood at third, and Greely at ninth.

California isn’t the only state experiencing an increase in car thefts, as over the past three years, the study reports a 25% increase in car thefts nationwide.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a car is stolen every 32 seconds in the U.S.

The NHTSA reports over $8 billion in assets that were stolen due to vehicle thefts in 2022, with 74% of the thefts occurring due to driver errors like leaving keys in the car.

  • Pueblo, CO

  • Bakersfield, CA

  • Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO

  • Memphis, TN

  • Portland-Vancouver-Hillsborough, OR-WA

  • Albuquerque, NM

  • Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

  • San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley

  • Greely, CO

  • Kansas City, MO-KS

Across all 50 states, specific car models have been consistently ranked as popular for car theft, with early 2000s Ford and Chevrolet pickup trucks topping the list, the study reports.

Kias and Hyundais, however, have been making the rounds for popular car thefts, mainly due to a social media trend highlighting the ease of breaking into the car without a key fob. The people responsible for spreading this trend are popularly known as “Kia Boys.”

“Thieves have found ways to start vehicles without key fobs — or car owners simply leave the fobs inside the car, so all the thief needs to do is open the door and push the start button and drive away. Things like the [TikTok] challenge have made several models of Kias and Hyundais very easy targets — all that is needed is the know-how, a cell phone and a USB cable. This has resulted in tens of thousands of stolen Kias/Hyundais over the past few years.”

Dr. Christopher Herrmann, associate professor in the Department of Law and Police Science at the City University of New York

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