NICB said it used FBI data for each of the country's 336 metropolitan statistical areas to come up with its rankings.

Metropolitan statistical areas are designated by the Office of Management and Budget using Census 2000 data, and may include areas surrounding a specific city.

For example, the number-one rated theft hot spot in the current report is Modesto, Calif. The Modesto statistical area, however, includes data not only from the city of Modesto, but the entire county of Stanislaus in which Modesto is located, NICB explained.

The rate is determined by the number of vehicle theft offenses per 100,000 inhabitants.

NICB noted that the statistical areas for Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. (numbers nine and ten, respectively, in 2002) fell from the top ten list completely and were replaced by newcomers San Diego and Detroit.

Meanwhile, Phoenix-Mesa dropped from first to second place and Miami moved from sixth to eighth place.

The crime bureau said that after declining steadily through 1999, vehicle thefts began creeping upward in 2000 with a dramatic increase in 2001. In 2001, an estimated 1,228,391 vehicles were stolen, which was an increase of 68,389 thefts over 2000. In 2003, an estimated 1,260,471 vehicles were reported stolen, which was an increase of 13,825 from 2002.

"The victim of a vehicle theft is hardly consoled by positive statistical trends," said NICB President and Chief Executive Officer Robert M. Bryant. "With over 1.2 million vehicles stolen annually in the United States, the loss to owners and insurance companies is over $8 billion.

"That amount of money makes it a lucrative endeavor for organized rings and professional operators. With recovery rates dropping, that signals the more insidious problems of exportation and surgical dismantlement?the former feeds the foreign demand for vehicles, while the latter feeds the domestic black market for replacement parts."

He noted that NICB has teamed with law enforcement entities at border areas and elsewhere, and is actively engaged in a number of vehicle theft education, enforcement and recovery operations throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada.