According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau's annual "Hot Wheel Report," Washington state saw an almost 10 percent rise in auto theft from 2009 to 2010. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue and Spokane metro areas even made the national lists for auto theft, ranking 13th and 4th in the number of thefts per 100,000 residents, respectively. In Seattle alone, motor vehicle theft nearly doubled, going from 1,737 thefts in 2009 to 3,453 in 2010, and law enforcement officials are not sure of the reason for the jump.

In 2010, there were just under 29,300 vehicles reported stolen in Washington, which is a 9.8 percent increase from the 26,684 vehicles stolen in the state in 2009. Over 16,000 of those thefts took place in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area, marking an 18.8 percent increase from 2009 numbers.

Three other metro areas saw thefts in the thousands: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro had 6,860, Spokane had 2,763, and Yakima had 1,266. Spokane also had the highest number of thefts per 100,000 residents in the state, followed by Yakima, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro.

In addition, according to the Hot Wheel Report, the most common targets of auto theft are 20-year-old vehicles. This is because older vehicle parts often have a higher monetary value at resale, and because they don't have the alarms and other anti-theft devices that newer models usually have. As a result, the most frequently stolen car in Washington in 2010 was the 1991 Honda Accord, followed by the 1995 Honda Civic, the 1995 Acura Integra, the 1990 Toyota Camry, and the 1993 Subaru Legacy.

Source: Seattle Times, "'91 Honda Accord state's most frequently stolen car in 2010," John de Leon, August 2, 2011