Learning how to steal a car on social media
NW YORK >> One of the busiest places in Memphis, Tennessee, these days is the impound lot north of downtown, where towtruck drivers can sit in line for more than six hours to make drop-offs, victims can wait weeks to get stolen vehicles back and some 2,700 cars are squeezed onto the grounds of an old farmequipment factory.
The overcrowding is the result in part of an auto theft boom that has gripped Memphis and other U.S. cities. Vehicles from two manufacturers, Kia and Hyundai, have proved especially vulnerable to theft, prompting cities to file lawsuits against the carmakers and at least one state’s attorney general to open an investigation.
Of the nearly 11,000 cars stolen in Memphis last year — about twice as many as in 2021 — roughly one-third were late-model Kias and Hyundais, according to police. It doesn’t take much to rip them off: just a screwdriver, a USB cord and hotwiring know-how found in videos proliferating on social media.
Many of the culprits are teenagers or young adults stealing cars for kicks or to use them for other crimes, such as robberies, police say. More than half of the 175 people arrested and accused of car theft this year in Memphis were teenagers, who often abandon the vehicles after a joyride.
“We know that a lot of our young people are breaking into cars and stealing cars as almost a dare, or a trend, right now,” Cerelyn J. Davis, the Memphis police chief, said. “They are finding it easy to do.”
U.S. cities have faced a rise in car thefts during the coronavirus pandemic. Some other categories of crime, including homicides and aggravated assaults, rose nationally in 2020 and 2021 and then declined somewhat last year, though they remain above pre-pandemic levels, according to data collected by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice.
But auto thefts have continued to rise.
Early in the pandemic, experts who study crime say, more vehicles were stolen partly because people were staying home: Cars were left on streets during the day, rather than in secure parking lots near offices. But the surge has continued, fueled in part by social media videos that show, step by step, how to steal Kias and Hyundais that are not equipped with an engine immobilizer — an electronic security device that keeps a car from being started without a key.
“All you had to do was put something on Tiktok, how to steal these cars, and they started getting stolen left and right,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week in Buffalo, New York.
The two Korean car brands, part of the same conglomerate, are increasingly popular in America, accounting for about onetenth of U.S. auto sales last year. They recently issued statements saying they had fixed the problem that makes their vehicles relatively easy to steal in their latest models, and were introducing free software upgrades for vulnerable cars — about 4.5 million Kias and 3.8 million Hyundais.
At the same time, the companies have shipped steering wheel locks to police departments across the country, to be provided free of charge to car owners who drive at-risk models. And executives say they are constantly monitoring Tiktok and Youtube for new videos that show how to steal their vehicles, and then alerting the social media companies so those videos can be removed. Kia said in a statement that it was “committed to supporting law enforcement and owners in addressing these crimes.”
Representatives for Youtube and Tiktok said the companies had removed several videos related to what is known as the “Kia Challenge” in recent months. Youtube said in a statement that it might allow some of the videos to remain if “they’re meant to be educational, documentary, scientific or artistic.” A Tiktok spokesperson said the social network “does not condone this behavior, which violates our policies and will be removed if found on our platform.”
Julie Garcia of San Antonio said she knew her Kia Sportage was vulnerable to theft, but she hoped it would not be attractive to thieves because the rear bumper was damaged. She also parked in view of security cameras whenever she could.
“It’s a scary feeling,” she said, “not knowing if your car’s going to be there or not.”
But on an afternoon in late December, Garcia found shards of glass on the ground where she had parked. It took the police two days to track down her Sportage. When she retrieved it, she found her steering column ripped apart, a window smashed and trash, including deli meat, strewn inside.
James Lint, a lieutenant with the San Antonio Police Department, said such destruction was common among stolen vehicles. “It’s not often we get them back in good condition,” he said.
Garcia, 31, is now warning anyone she knows who owns a Kia.
“I’m just trying to spread awareness,” she said. “Because I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else.”
Officials say the social media-driven rise in Kia and Hyundai thefts began about two years ago in Milwaukee, and then spread nationwide. City attorneys for Seattle and Columbus, Ohio, recently sued the automakers for not installing anti-theft technology, and other cities, including Cleveland, Milwaukee and St. Louis, have threatened litigation.
This week, Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, said he was investigating whether the companies had violated his state’s consumer protection and public nuisance laws. “The drastic increase in Kia and Hyundai vehicle thefts is continuing to threaten public safety and do serious harm to our communities,” he said.
The car-theft surge has been the most persistent and wide-ranging crime trend in America during the pandemic, affecting jurisdictions large and small.
In the 30 major cities examined by the Council on Criminal Justice, motor vehicle thefts were up 21% last year from 2021 — resulting in an estimated 37,560 more stolen cars in those places. This followed double-digit increases in 2020 and 2021. (Carjackings, categorized as a violent crime and counted separately, have also risen in some cities.)