A harmful problem spreading on TikTok and different social media platforms has automotive house owners and police departments on alert throughout the nation — difficult younger teenagers to steal sure vehicles off the road utilizing a USB wire.
The goal? Sure makes and fashions of 2010-2021 Kia and Hyundai automobiles that use a mechanical key, not a key fob and push-button to start out the automotive. Investigators inform CNBC the development began final 12 months and the variety of vehicles being stolen is constant to surge throughout the nation.
In St. Petersburg, Florida, police reported greater than a 3rd of all automotive thefts there since mid-July are linked to the TikTok problem. Los Angeles officers say the viral development has led to an 85% improve in automotive theft of Hyundais and Kias in contrast with final 12 months.
The story is similar in Chicago, in response to Cook dinner County Sheriff Tom Dart.
“In our jurisdiction alone, [thefts of certain models are] up over 800% within the final month,” he stated. “We see no finish in sight.”
The development challenges teenagers to steal a automotive off the road by breaking into the automotive, popping off the steering wheel column and sizzling wiring the car utilizing a USB cable, just like the wire used to cost a cellphone.
“The viral nature of how this has taken off on social media — it is accelerated this like we have by no means seen,” Dart stated. “[The perpetrators are] doing it in 20 to 30 seconds. It actually is as old school as you possibly can think about.”
Dart informed CNBC the thieves are primarily younger teenagers — some, not even sufficiently old to legally drive. The stolen vehicles are sometimes used for joyrides, or used to commit different crimes after which deserted on the aspect of the highway, he stated.
“We had an 11-year-old who was certainly one of our most prolific stealers … the notion that they will drive is a fantasy,” Dart stated.
The thieves publish movies on-line of stealing and driving the vehicles, utilizing the hashtag “Kia Boys” — which has greater than 33 million views on TikTok. The social media firm stated in an announcement it “doesn’t condone this habits which violates our insurance policies and shall be eliminated if discovered on our platform.”
Illinois resident Karen Perkins stated her 2019 Kia Sorrento was stolen from in entrance of her condominium on Aug. 6.
“I regarded out the window and realized my automotive was gone,” Perkins stated.
Days later, she was in a rental automotive at a pink gentle when she stated her lacking Kia drove proper previous her.
“I noticed a teenage boy sitting within the entrance,” Perkins stated. “I drove across the block … 5 children truly jumped into my automotive — that is once I began to panic — like I’ll lose my automotive perpetually.”
Perkins tells CNBC she went on a hunt to trace down her Kia. Hours later, she discovered it abandoned on the aspect of the highway and known as police. She stated the deserted Kia was left closely broken.
“They crashed the entrance of my automotive … they broken the bumper,” Perkins stated. “They even wrote on the highest of my ceiling … it says ‘sizzling automotive.'”
Tom Gerszewski, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based filmmaker, tracks the viral crime spree on his YouTube channel in “Kia Boys Documentary,” which has already topped 3.7 million views.
“That is what they do for after-school leisure,” Gerszewski informed CNBC. “They do not actually have a lot of a sympathy for the folks that they are doing this to.”
Ken McClain, an lawyer in Missouri, says among the blame for the stealing spree falls on the automakers — Kia and Hyundai — claiming the businesses constructed vehicles which are too straightforward to steal.
McClain calls the problem a “defect.” His agency has filed class motion lawsuits in 12 states thus far: California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Texas. He is additionally making ready to file in as many as seven different states.
“We’re receiving dozens of calls a day,” McClain stated. “The producer[s] must be paying for this.”
Kia and Hyundai weren’t in a position to touch upon what number of automobiles are included within the make and mannequin years and would doubtlessly be in danger.
A Kia spokesperson stated the corporate is anxious concerning the improve in thefts and has offered steering free wheel lock units to legislation enforcement officers in affected areas.
“It’s unlucky that criminals are utilizing social media to focus on automobiles with out engine immobilizers in a coordinated effort,” the spokesperson stated.
“Whereas no automotive might be made theft-proof, criminals are in search of automobiles solely geared up with a metal key and ‘turn-to-start’ ignition system. The vast majority of Kia automobiles in the US are geared up with a key fob and “push-button-to-start” system, making them harder to steal. All 2022 Kia fashions and trims have an immobilizer utilized both at the start of the mannequin 12 months or as a working change.”
A Hyundai spokesperson stated the corporate is pursuing an identical effort to distribute steering wheel locks and that the corporate will start promoting a safety equipment subsequent month.
Based on Dart of the Cook dinner County Sherriff’s Workplace, the old-school wheel lock anti-theft units might go an extended option to thwarting the thefts.
“It makes it practically unimaginable to maneuver the automotive,” he stated.
— CNBC Specials Web page Peter Ferrarse contributed to this report.
