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A Milwaukee neighborhood supposedly has a hellacious level of auto theft, landing it on a list of the Top 10 U.S. neighborhoods for this crime, a major indicator of poverty and social instability.

But the study, reported by TheDetroitBureau.com, a website which declares itself “The Voice of the Automotive World,” seems suspect. NewsBuzz set out to probe the mystery.

The Detroit Bureau’s report, issued in February, singled out what it called the “Triangle Neighborhood” located between West Walnut Street, North 20th Street and their mutual intersection of West Fond du Lac Avenue, a tiny area of about 10 blocks and 480 people. “In the Midwest, Milwaukee lands on the big time auto theft scoreboard with its Triangle neighborhood recording 94.96 thefts per 1,000 (residents),” the bureau’s article declared.

This is wildly above the citywide 2010 rate of about 7 auto thefts per 1,000 residents, or 4,304 total for that year, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Data, which shows a 44.5 percent decline in auto thefts in the city between 2007 and 2010.

The Detroit Bureau claims its statistics are based on “insurance industry statistics” found on NeighborhoodScout.com, a nationwide real estate information aggregator, but the data could not be located on the site by NewsBuzz.

Neither was it familiar to Frank Scafidi of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, whose organization was mentioned in the report. Scafidi tells NewsBuzz: “I know of no other organization that publishes this kind of data to the degree it is reported from this story, and it certainly isn’t my company, yet we are cited in it.”

The Triangle neighborhood joined others in the nation on this elusive list of auto theft hotbeds, including such areas as the Laney district of Oakland, Calif., the First Ward of Charlotte, N.C., West Commerce Street in Dallas and other locations in California, Texas and Nevada.

Far more reliable is data from Scafidi’s group; the National Insurance Crime Bureau has been around for more than a century and the non-profit works for insurance companies to help prevent insurance-based crime. Actual data from the NICB shows that the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis Metropolitan Statistical Area averages 345 auto thefts per 100,000 people, ranking 59th in the nation. Of the top ten metro areas, the NICB finds, all are in the west, where 38 percent of U.S. auto thefts occur, or about twice as many as the Midwest. Most are ports or border cities where automobiles can be readily exported.

triangle neighborhood (by google maps)

In Milwaukee, the thefts are more likely to be of the joyride variety and less likely to be involved in the smuggling of narcotics or aliens, or destined for chop shops or export to collectors.

Prompted by the mysterious report from the Detroit Bureau, Scafidi decided to do further research on behalf of NewsBuzz: “I called NeighborhoodScout (the supposed source for Detroit Bureau) at the number below and guess who answered the phone … the CEO himself, Dr. Andrew Schiller. That in and of itself was revealing. I asked him about the data source for the story, and his response was that the ‘reporter’ was mistaken; that NeighborhoodScout uses no insurance industry data.  He would not elaborate on where the data comes from, however.”

That leaves only the report’s curious designation of the Triangle Neighborhood. The title was not immediately familiar to Alex Runner, staff assistant for Common Council President Willie Hines, in whose 15th Aldermanic District it is located. When asked about it, Runner responded, “Where do you mean exactly? We have a couple triangle neighborhoods in the 15th District: Walnut/Lisbon/Sarnow or Wright/24th/Fond du Lac or Lisbon/North/46th? Can you be more specific?”

The small area singled out by the Detroit website does have attributes that could lend it to be exploited by car thieves. Census data and other sources show the area has a median household income of $20,016 (versus $34,868 for the city as a whole), 45 percent of residents lack a high school diploma and the unemployment rate is far higher than the metro area average. The neighborhood has a number of vacant lots, a state highway running diagonally through it and immediate access to I-43, which might favors auto thefts.

But the residents there average 0.2 automobiles per household, one-fifth the city average, and there are no auto thefts shown in the area for 2011. It’s hardly an auto theft hell.

Runner says media reports often draw attention from positive developments in the neighborhood: “TMJ4 reporter Aaron Diamant did a story about how people in that area are more likely to be victims of crime than anywhere else,” Runner notes.  “Aaron interviewed Chief (Edward) Flynn and Flynn said if you talked to anyone in the central city, they would have a hard time believing that Lindsay Heights (the broader neighborhood encompassing the ‘Triangle’ area) is such a bad neighborhood – it’s known for being really good. I think what might be happening is residents there are super active and probably call the police more than any other central city neighborhood because they work in partnership with police.”

Someone should pass on the news to The Detroit Bureau.

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