CLEVELAND -- Chief Investigator Duane Pohlman reported that nearly 29,000 cars were reported stolen in Ohio last year. So the 5 On Your Side investigative team compiled comprehensive reports of every auto theft in every city in the state of Ohio in 2006.

While major cities like Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati lead the pack in raw numbers, they also have hundreds of thousands of residents. To be fair, NewsChannel5 crunched the data comparing the thefts to population to get a rate of car thefts per 1,000 people.

Here are the results:

2006 Auto Thefts (Most Recent Report)

NewsChannel5 narrowed down the data to countdown the top hot spots for auto theft in Ohio:

HOT SPOT No. 5
Bedford Heights, Ohio
Population – 10,868
Car Thefts in 2006 – 63
5.8 cars stolen per 1,000 people

HOT SPOT No. 4
Warrensville Heights, Ohio
Population – 14,240
Car Thefts in 2006 – 92
6.5 cars stolen per 1,000 people

HOT SPOT No. 3 – TIE
Brooklyn, Ohio
Population – 10,914
Car Thefts in 2006 – 74
6.8 cars stolen per 1,000 people

AND

Canton, Ohio
Population – 79,575
Car Thefts in 2006 – 539
6.8 cars stolen per 1,000 people

HOT SPOT No. 2
Akron, Ohio
Population – 212,272
Car Thefts in 2006 – 3,050
14.3 cars stolen per 1,000 people

HOT SPOT No. 1
Cleveland, Ohio
Population – 452,759
Car Thefts in 2006 – 6.534
14.4 cars stolen per 1,000 people