The battle between American performance cars has existed for decades. Just look at the classic muscle car era if you have your doubts. But the battle between manufacturers isn’t just limited to enthusiasts. In fact, according to the latest vehicle theft report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the battle is also apparent when it comes to thieves. And yes, you guessed it, the Camaro once again came out on top.

The NICB does a lot of things, one of which is tracking trends in automotive thefts across the country. Just this last week, the NICB released its latest vehicle theft report regarding “sporty” cars based on information they gathered from the National Crime Information Center. What the NICB found was that fifth-generation Camaros are the most popular sporty car stolen in the United States.

The report looks at vehicle thefts from January 1^st, 2009 through December 31^st, 2012 and only includes 2010, 2011 and 2012 model years. Within the report, cars are broken down into premium, mid-sized and compact classes, each containing a number of different makes and models. Among those included in the theft report are Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, Corvettes, Porsche 911s and Audi A5/S5 models.

During the test period, 3,780 “sporty” vehicles were stolen in the U.S., 1,509 of which were fifth-generation Camaros.

Falling in second place for the most stolen sporty car is the Mustang with 980 cars stolen, and third place goes to the Challenger with 782 cars stolen. Following way far behind in 4^th place is the Porsche Panamera with 103 cars stolen. Rounding out the top five spots is the Audi A5/S5 with just 101 cars stolen. Surprisingly, only 69 Corvettes were reported stolen during the report period.

In addition to types of cars, the report also dives into where the majority of the sporty vehicles reported stolen were taken from, with California in the lead, followed by Florida and Texas.

While mid-sized sporty cars, like the Camaro, Mustang and Challenger are the most stolen sporty vehicles, they’re also the least likely to be recovered according to the report. In fact, premium sporty cars, like the 4^th most stolen Panamera and 6^th most stolen Corvette had a recovery rating of over 30 percent, while mid-size sporty cars had a recovery rate of just 12.4 percent from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2012.

Obviously we’re Camaro fans around here, but according to the NCIC and the NICB, so too are thieves. So just be sure those modern muscle cars are locked and alarmed when you leave, because this is one battle Camaro can afford to give to its competition.