Fewer residents of the city of Yakima, Washington, are being forced to deal with the headache of a stolen car, according to police statistics cited in the Yakima Herald-Republic earlier this week. The decline was part of a more general downward trend seen in property crime in the area.
There were several reasons behind the decline, police Lieutenant Mike Merryman told the newspaper: “When you have a highly visible, proactive patrol out in the field, that results in lower crimes.” But, he cautioned, “numbers are cyclical. Last year, when we had a great year with larceny and theft, which was off 21 percent, I looked at that and thought ‘That’s probably going to have a little rise.'”
The numbers for the period of time between July 2008 and 2009 indicated that 412 cars were stolen in Yakima, but the roughly 20 percent decline reduced that figure to 331 over the next 12-month period.
The comparatively mild winter also contributed to the smaller number of auto thefts seen in Yakima, the paper said. With fewer motorists starting their cars and then going back inside to wait for them to warm up in the mornings, the opportunity for criminals to simply drive these cars away is lessened. Auto theft experts say that this practice provides opportunistic crooks with a golden chance to steal a car quickly and easily.
In addition, leaving one’s car in a well-lit area and making sure that no valuable electronic items are clearly visible from outside can greatly lessen the chances that a consumer will become a victim of auto theft. Areas with comparatively few car thefts can improve residents’ chances to get car insurance cheaply, experts say.