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