We are ranked #7 for car theft...

Arizona has always ranked very high in car thefts. I have seen it numerous times because I work in auto industry. Arizona also has higher insurance premiums because of auto thefts. I just had a customer come in who got her vehicle stolen by my house! And believe this or not I recieved a call from Mesa Pd one night at about 2 am wanting to know if i was ok. They pulled over a guy on his bike who had paperwork with my name and adress on it. The pd wanted to know if someone had broken into our house or car. Turns out he broke into my car! I was really thankful they caught the guy. Whats even worst is it was a bank statement he took from my car. So yes I am very familiar with auto break in's and thefts in the valley.

Jennifer is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com and mommy to four beautiful girls who range from 9 to 4 years of age.

I also knew that Arizona is high for car thefts. I had read somewhere that is has to do with being close to the border. I suppose it is easy to get them across and do what they do. I bet Southern California and Texas rank right up there too.

I have had friends who have had their cars stolen. What a violation. I can not and don't want to know what it feels like. I can only imagine. Yikes.

KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.

i've always heard AZ ranks high for car thefts. I am fortunate, that i have never had a car stolen or broken into though.

A friend of mine came out of work and her car was gone. The police officer told that car thieves work fast. Said it would be very unlikely for them to find her car and that the car is probably already in pieces at a chop shop or has crossed the border into Mexico.

She had to get a new car, 2 car seats and a stroller for two.

just~me

Well, on the bright side, if we were ranked 4 in 2006 and 8 in 2007, things are getting better! (Or other places are getting worse!) Considering we're the 5 largest city, being 8th in car thefts doesn't seem too bad. Although, if you're the one getting your car stolen, that probably won't make you feel any better. Everyone, keep up on your insurance!

Hobbymommy, 38, is a discussion leader from Mesa. She is a happy stay-at-home mommy to a 3-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.

I've had my car broken into twice outside of my parents car. They live in a very nice are of Glendale. We were shocked. The first time, the person destroyed my convertible top and got the garage door opener....he then gained access into the garage where he ransacked absolutely everything. We thankfully don't keep anything valuable in the garage and when he unlocked the side door to get into the backyard, the alarm went off...it was like at 5:00 a.m. a time in which we could have encountered him. We saw him running away and his car that he had parked up the street almost didn't start- it kept stalling...wish it had died on him!! Would have been great.

When the policeman came out he said that breaking into garages is one of the fastest increasing crimes because they typically can get in and out without anyone noticing...they can steal expensive golf clubs, tools, and people make the mistake of also leaving their purse, personal items, cell phones and even the keys in the car.

So lesson is - if you park outside, always take inside your garage door opener, don't leave anything valuable in the car and always, always LOCK the door from the garage into your house every night! Some garage doors even have an electrical locks that you can lock when you go to bed. Guess these theives take the garage remotes they steal and go up and down streets because some codes are never changed at the time of installation of the garage door opener and the codes usually come standard, for exactly 2222, so if you or your installer doesn't change it, it's possible that someone else could open your garage door!

Very scary! Protect yourself. We were lucky, we just had damage done to our car and very little theft...but it still left a hefty insurance deductible and a feeling of being violated. We are not ones to park outside of our garage, but we had 2 special circumstances each time and had no choice. Never again!

JenM