I was reading an article on the net which said that cities in Washington State, Tacoma, and Seattle, have two of the top rate of car theft in the country. The list also included several cities in the state of California, and the city of Miami. Not surprised to see Miami and California State on that list but very SURPRISE to see areas of Washington State. I've never heard anything particular in reference to major crime issues that would justify why car theft is so high in Tacoma and Seattle. I know there are several guys on this board who live in Washington. It would be interesting to hear the opinions of those guys who live there on why car theft is such a major problem in Tacoma and Seattle, which seemingly are safe cities to live in. Is it because Seattle is a city with easy port access for thieves to ship out the stolen vehicles? Has car theft been at this level for many years or has the rate of theft just recently increased?

Thanks

 

yeah Vancouver is worst place for car theft in canada, you can steal a car in washinton then go to canada they only check if a stolen car is from canada. Then you just sell parts EBAY

 

Another reason they get stolen so much here (I live between these two cities) is that 4Runners and trucks of all years are everywhere.

I can't even go to the grocery store without seeing all 4 gens now of the Runners within a few mile radius.
2nd gens are everywhere around my town, and sometimes going up the big hill before my place there will be 3 to 4 2nd gens at the same time.
Pretty hilarious to see.

This is why I invested in a very good alarm, and one with a pager to boot.
I'm going to make it as hard as possible for a thief if they want my rig.

Tacoma also has a very high crime rate in some parts.
Many drug dealings, and perhaps the rigs are being chopped up for quick sales to support drugs.

 

My Guess is that all the above mentioned cities are port cities. Miami, Seattle, tacoma and Vancouver are all port cities where these cars can get loaded onto to containers and shipped out of the country, where they are re-sold with ease.



Joe

 

i hear there's a lot of russian mafia in the greater seattle area, and that a lot of their business is stealing/chopping up cars

 

Yup, port cities. They got stolen, stuffed in a container, and sent to a third world country.

 

Having lived in the NYC and Jersey area for many years, I'm very aware that high crime is a condition of most big city metropolitan areas. If you live in a big city you learn to become street wise,even when you live far away from the crime zones. All though not hugh,Seattle does have a decent size population of six hundred thousand,and Tacoma with a much small number of two hundred thousand. When people on the East coast think of Seattle, images of a clean,safe, out doorsy life style comes to mind. I currently live in Alabama but I'm at heart a big city guy who enjoys abit of nightlife. Alabama is a great place and very safe, but excellent nightlife is not something you can expect in Bama . In any case, I had plan on making another move, to the Pacific West area, Seattle enfact. But I'm surprised that Seattle has a higher car theft rate than NYC and Jersey. A few of my business associates from Jersey made the move several years ago to Seattle,they had talked about how wonderful ,clean,outdoorsy and friendly Seattle is. Were their perceptions off base? I'm trying to figure this out. Is much of the crime is Tacoma and Seattle located in the inner city, and away from the burbs? Is car theft the major statistic of the crime rate in Washington State,or just one of many high crime stats which effects the burbs as well?

Thanks

 

I think the car theft rate has a lot to do with the fact that its a port city- they can load up alot of vehicles on one of those ships, then just send them overseas.

I don't think Seattle is any worse than any other big city. I've gotten my car busted into once and CD's taken, but that's it. I've got a good alarm, and "other" theft deterrents. Seattle is a very friendly city, laid back compared to the east coast where I grew up. I'd recommend it to anyone, once you get used to the weather. As far as the stats that were mentioned, I'd also break it down further to which cars are getting stolen- my guess is alot of civics, accords, camry's, the usual suspects.

 

i think seattle and the surrounding area kicks ass and you shouldnt let some stupid statistic like that fool you. ya car theft is here but its everywhere, i would invest in an alarm and just use common sense otherwise car theft really shouldnt play a role in a decision on a big move

 

I'm not saying a high rate of car theft in Seattle would stop me from moving there, just a good idea to understand the conditions to expect in that area.

 

wait did the article say that 4runners in paticular were getting stolen the most or did they say cars in general or toyotas in general? yeah its a great area to live in. i never really worry about my 4Runner getting stolen or broken into, even though my old mazda truck was broken into. you should worry about it unless you have expensive stuff just sitting out in the open. or maybe im just young and nieve (sp?)

 

The article did not pinpoint 4Runners as the most saught after vehicles to be stolen the most. One of the posters was correct in saying that Honda's ,Camrys ect ect were at the top of the list. But I'm thinking a smart thief would desire taking a 4Runner. They are the hottest looking and best running vehicles imo. However, they might not be the best targets of theft for chop shops to use for parts.

 

Another reason is that in the Seattle/Tacoma the penalty for stealing a car is pretty soft. My Toyota was a replacement for a stolen truck. All my vehicles now have alarms and clubs. Hopefully the combination of the two ant-theft devices do the trick.

Ray

 

That sounds like Newark NJ several years ago when it was the car theft capital of the country. You needed not one or two things to protect your car from theft, you needed Lojack,alarms,clubs and with all that your car was still stolen. I've never lived in a city like Newark,but you heard about it on the news all the time . Enfact the high theft rate forced the law enforcement agencies to do a much better job in NYC and cities like Newark, which did drastically reduce car theft. I wonder why the enforcement agencies in Seattle have not cracked down and reduced the rate of car theft? The flow of traffic can be controlled at the ports, and based on what happen to us on 9/11, all ports should be better regulated.

 

My brother-in-law gave me a few pointers on trying to keep my runner in my hands.
He told me to keep a childs car seat in your rig. Seems there is an honor code among theives about stealing cars with childrens car seats in them. Don't know if its true but i do carry one in my rig. But then i have two small boys

Hey there Ray!!!
You are over on Lake Tapps???
What part of the lake are you on? My wife's parents live on Tapps island. We stay at there place on weekends while i'm building my house.
Maybe we can hook up sometime.

 

Sounds like car theft is so bad in Tacoma and Seattle that when going shopping down town,its not wise to park your car on the street. You probably need to pay to put the vehicle in a parking garage. Having an attach garage at your house with an alarm on the garage door sounds like a must. All these precautions are just apart of living in a community which is crawling with thieves.

 

I second the Russian Mafia thing. Very sad to say, that you have to think twice before buying a car from a Russian up here. I am in NO WAY racist. I have just found from dealing with people that most of the screwed up car sales are from Russians. One of my co-workers was in the process of buying an Acura CL. Car looked great, low miles, ran great, but it was priced too cheap. Something didn't seem right. So he did some investigating and found that there were some major problems with the title. The VIN showed that the car was totaled, then the title was washed, but the car didn't show any signs of being totaled. Most likely the VIN was from a different car. I had a few attempted thefts with my old car, but that wasn't because people wanted the car. They wanted my stereo system. So I quickly invested in a top dollar car alarm with a proximity sensor.

 

i remember seeing a special on one of the local news channels about the shady stuff going on up here. they'll buy cars that are totalled and use the title/stolen parts on them

 

Seattle is only a moderate size city. Six hundred thousand people is not a hugh population. Even Birmingham Alabama is larger then Seattle and the crime concerns here are nothing like Seattle. There is no excuse why the police department in Seattle can't get control of the criminal element in that city if the resouces are put in place. The idea that Russian mafia are in this country says alot about how lacks our immigration department is #1, #2 everyone in government from the governor on down in Washington state should be voted out of office if they continue to screw up the state. Organize crime is in most, if not all states but when you have stats that point to an out of control problem like car theft,someone should step up to the plate. Apparently several Russian immigrants are moving to this country for the opportunity to commit crimes. I think even the entertainer Bill Cosby lost his son because he was murdered by a Russian immigrant who was apart of a crime gang. He was trying to steal young Cosby's car at a rest stop off the highway. The penalty for car theft and other crimes in Seattle should be trippled. Increase the punishment and crime will come down!!

 

I don't know if it's a "mafia" per se.... but I do know it's very common of Russians in this state.

Just wanted to clarify.