TikTok Fuels Kia, Hyundai Thefts Across Twin Cities Metro: Police

GOLDEN VALLEY, MN — The Golden Valley Police Department is alerting residents across the Twin Cities metro area about the rise in car thieves targeting Kias and Hyundai vehicles.

Teenage thieves are looking for Kias and Hyundais because of a security vulnerability in earlier, cheaper models that was widely exposed on TikTok, investigators said.

From October through Dec. 6, 95 percent of stolen vehicle reports in Golden Valley involved Kias or Hyundais, according to police. The vehicles were typically stolen from driveways and apartment parking lots between midnight and 5 a.m. by groups of teens who look for specific models.

"This isn’t just a Golden Valley problem. Many other Twin Cities police departments have been dealing with it for months," Golden Valley Police Chief Virgil Green said in a statement Thursday.

Indeed, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, Kia and Hyundais are stolen at almost twice the rate of other cars because their keys lack computer chips for theft "immobilizer" systems.

"Our earlier studies show that vehicle theft losses plunged after immobilizers were introduced," said Highway Loss Data Institute's vice president, Matt Moore. "Unfortunately, Hyundai and Kia have lagged behind other automakers in making them standard equipment.'

The Golden Valley police chief is now asking the owners of Kias and Hyundais to invest in anti-theft devices and GPS tracking technologies.

"We’re seeing a shift from thefts of vehicles with keys left inside to vehicles being targeted due to a manufacturing issue," Green said.

"The cars are typically broken into through a rear window and driven away without keys. TikTok videos are showing these groups of teenagers how to steal the vehicles in a matter of seconds or minutes. Most, if not all, of these vehicles are later recovered by other agencies."

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.