Yuba-sutter named in list of areas with high car theft rates

In a list published by the USA Today of the 40 metropolitan areas with the highest rate of car thefts, the Yuba-sutter area came in at No. 17.

The data for the list came from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) 2018 Vehicle Theft Study, which tracked car thefts in metropolitan statistical areas (per 100,000 people). Yuba City is 17th on the list, but NICB Director of Public Affairs Frank Scafidi said via email that the data provided was from both Yuba and Sutter counties.

In 2018, it was reported that 867 vehicles were stolen in the Yuba-sutter area at a rate of 495.9 per 100,000 residents, according to the NICB study. The property crime rate was 2,510.7 per 100,000 residents. Yuba-sutter was ranked ninth in 2017, 30th in 2016 and 28th in 2015 in the same study.

Yuba City Police Department Lt. James Runyen said via email that there have been “in recent years higher numbers of stolen cars in the area.” He said vehicles are stolen mostly from residential areas and the most common stolen cars are late 1990s and early 2000s Honda Accords and Civics.

“We typically see older vehicles stolen in our area,” Runyen said.

Sutter County Undersheriff Scott Smallwood said that the sheriff’s office deals with three to four car thefts per month in its jurisdiction, which includes

any part of the county not on the state highway and the city of Live Oak.

He said Hondas and Toyotas are the most popular for car thieves and have been since he started working in the area in 1996.

“I don’t know why,” Smallwood said.

Smallwood described vehicle theft as an “opportunist’s type of crime” that results from people leaving keys in their car, leaving their car running and leaving it unattended or leaving appealing items inside the car.

He said criminals are crafty and find ways to break into both old and new cars, although he did acknowledge that older vehicles are easier to steal than newer ones. Four months ago, the sheriff’s office caught someone using a type of key that works on different types of car locks, according to Smallwood.