Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff luring bog Obam here. The author of today's episode,
Speaker 1: Dave Rouse, has a buddy named Mark. Mark lives in
Speaker 1: Chicago and loved his Honda Civic hatchback. Thieves loved it too. Apparently,
Speaker 1: a late nineties Civic is worth far more than its
Speaker 1: blue book value in parts alone. Multiple people have pulled
Speaker 1: up next to him at stoplights and offered to buy
Speaker 1: the hatchback on the spot. Maybe he should have taken
Speaker 1: them up on the offer. The first time his Civic
Speaker 1: was stolen, the cops quickly recovered it a few blocks away.
Speaker 1: The second time, Mark wasn't so lucky. He went out
Speaker 1: to search for the car himself and found it about
Speaker 1: a mile from his apartment under an overpass, stripped of
Speaker 1: its engine and missing the entire front paneling. And now
Speaker 1: Mark takes the train. Mark Civic didn't have a car
Speaker 1: alarm because, like most of us, he assumed that alarms
Speaker 1: were a waste of money if you live in a
Speaker 1: big city. Falsely triggered car alarms as common as pigeons
Speaker 1: and just as annoying. A blairing car alarm in Chicago
Speaker 1: barely raises an eyebrow. There's even a name for it,
Speaker 1: alarm fatigue. But does our collective disdain for car alarms
Speaker 1: mean that they aren't effective. We spoke with Chris mcgowey,
Speaker 1: a security consultant of thirty three years and host of
Speaker 1: the podcast Crime School. He admits that we all have
Speaker 1: alarm fatigue to some degree, but thinks that alarms still
Speaker 1: have their place. He said, car thieves will tell you
Speaker 1: they don't like the noise, they don't like the attention
Speaker 1: that it draws, but it depends on the quality of
Speaker 1: the car thief. If it's just an amateur car thief,
Speaker 1: the alarm goes off, they're gone to that extent they work.
Speaker 1: Professional car thieves, on the other hand, don't even worry
Speaker 1: about alarms. McGoey says. The pros can either disable the
Speaker 1: alarm quickly or use a number of tactics, including dummy
Speaker 1: sets of keys and tow trucks, to circumvent the alarm
Speaker 1: system altogether. According to INTERPOL, the international law enforcement organization
Speaker 1: CARTIFF worldwide can be divided into two distinct categories. Widely
Speaker 1: available older cars that's quantity and higher end, and luxury
Speaker 1: cars that's quality marks Civic fits squarely in the quantity category,
Speaker 1: the type of car that's irresistible to young street level
Speaker 1: car thieves. Parts for older, widely available cars are in
Speaker 1: high demand. Plus, most cars built before the year two
Speaker 1: thousand can still be hot wired. McGoey said, the old
Speaker 1: cars are a piece of cake. In modern cars, all
Speaker 1: the keys have a chip built into them. That chip
Speaker 1: has to be married up to the ignition. You can't
Speaker 1: go in there and break off the steering wheel column
Speaker 1: like you would in the old days, the car won't start.
Speaker 1: If low level car thieves are more likely to be
Speaker 1: spooked by car alarms, then it's worth figuring out if
Speaker 1: your car is attractive to low level car thieves. First
Speaker 1: check if your car is one of the ten most
Speaker 1: stolen in America, that's a sure sign you're in the
Speaker 1: quantity category. According to low Jack Vehicle Theft Recovery Report,
Speaker 1: the most stolen mixing models are the Honda Civic and Accord,
Speaker 1: the Toyota Camra and Corolla, the Chevy Tahoe and Silverado,
Speaker 1: the Nissan Altima, the Cadillac Escalade, Ford F to fifty,
Speaker 1: and the Acura Integra. Again, older model years are the
Speaker 1: easiest to swipe and have the highest demand for parts.
Speaker 1: Mcgoey's rule of thumb is quote, look at the most
Speaker 1: popular cars today, they'll be the most stolen cars in
Speaker 1: the country ten years from now. Another hugely important factor
Speaker 1: is where you live. According to statistics from the FBI
Speaker 1: and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, big cities routinely have
Speaker 1: the highest total number of car thefts, but that's because
Speaker 1: there are lots of cars in big cities. A more
Speaker 1: useful statistic is car thefs per capita. In that category,
Speaker 1: California is king. California is home to eight of the
Speaker 1: ten metropolitan areas with the most car stolen per person.
Speaker 1: In Los Angeles held the title for the most car
Speaker 1: stolen nationwide fifty five hundred and fifty nine, but the
Speaker 1: smaller Central Valley cities of Modesto, Bakersfield, and Salinas had
Speaker 1: far greater theft rates per capita. Another perhaps unexpected capital
Speaker 1: of car theft is Albuquerque, New Mexico, number two in
Speaker 1: the country four stolen cars per resident. There might be
Speaker 1: a simple explanation for this geographical clustering of theft rates.
Speaker 1: According to a report from the Department of Justice, one
Speaker 1: third of all cars stolen in the US were stolen
Speaker 1: from four states, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. That's
Speaker 1: because there's a lucrative trade in stolen cars and parts
Speaker 1: directly into Mexico. Although the smuggling rings are operated by
Speaker 1: large criminal organizations, the report concluded that the cars themselves
Speaker 1: are mostly stolen by juveniles. So if you drive a
Speaker 1: popular car that's more than decade old and you live
Speaker 1: within a few hours drive of the border, it's probably
Speaker 1: worth investing in a highly visible alarm system. The flashy
Speaker 1: decals alone might be enough to to her thiefs scanning
Speaker 1: the aisles and the mall parking lot, but if a
Speaker 1: car alarm does go off near you, you shouldn't go
Speaker 1: investigate unless your law enforcement or security personnel. It's their
Speaker 1: job to investigate alarms, not bystanders. Fortunately, a car owner
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have to be an earshot to learn that
Speaker 1: their car is being broken into, or at least approached.
Speaker 1: Many companies latest security systems include instant notifications sent to
Speaker 1: the owner's smartphone or keys. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clay. From One on
Speaker 1: This and lots of Other topics is at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio.
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