In Spain a car is stolen every 3 minutes

According to ‘Detector’, a company specializing in locating stolen vehicles, for the past two years a car has been stolen every 3 minutes in Spain. In total 175,200 vehicles per year were stolen in 2005 and 2006 of which over 50,000 have never been found.

Madrid comes top of the list for places where the highest number of vehicles are stolen with around 35,000 car robberies per year. Andalucia comes next with 30,200 followed by the Comunidad Valenciana (Costas Blanca and Azahar) with 24,000, Catalonia (Costa Brava) with 19,100, the Canary Islands with 8,120, the Balearic Islands with 6,020, Murcia (Costa Calida) with 4,300, Galicia with 3,829, Castilla La Mancha with 3,090 and Aragón with 2.280 stolen vehicles.

According to figures released yesterday by Detector the regions where your car is safest are the Rioja with 340, Navarra with 440, Cantabria with 730, Extremadura with 1,428, Asturias with 1,490 and the País Vasco with 2,000 vehicles stolen per year.

37% of all car robberies take place during the Summer when drivers are advised to be especially careful about locking their car properly, and to never get out and leave the key in the ignition, even if it is just for a few minutes and there are other occupants inside. According to information provided by the government in a reply to a parliamentary question last year the number of stolen vehicles dropped by almost a quarter (23.1%) between 2000 and 2005.

Related: Driving in Spain, Roads in Spain