Inspired by Social Media, 14-Year-Old Tied to Dozens of Kia Thefts

A 14-year-old in Plano, TX has been arrested in connection with at least 38 car thefts or attempted thefts, which police say were inspired by the Kia Boys trend on TikTok and other social media platforms.

The trend kicked off last summer when some industrious tricksters figured out an easy way to hijack Kia’s and Hyundai’s using USB ports, exploiting a vulnerability in the design of the vehicles to take them for joy rides. Videos spread like wildfire on TikTok and other social media platforms, leading to more and more people performing the stunt.

The 14-year-old Texan was not acting alone, authorities say.

On July 6, the young man allegedly attempted to lift a car in the West Plano neighborhood when he was spotted by the owner from within the house. Recognizing what the boy was up to, the homeowner detained the teenager until police arrived and placed the boy under arrest.

Ultimately, police connected him to a laundry list of other thefts, in part by using social media.

“He was suspected of breaking into 38 cars. Some of them were attempted thefts, and some of them were actually stolen,” Jennifer Chapman, of the Plano Police Department, told Fox4 in Texas.

Since last year alone, Chapman says, Plano has seen car thefts accelerate by 15 percent. In nearby Dallas, they’ve gone up over 30 percent while Richardson, TX has seen car thefts skyrocket 85 percent from this time last year.

“The juveniles are looking online to see how they can steal the vehicles, and they’re sharing it with each other just like they would any other social media platform,” Chapman warned.

The problem is not local to Texas.

In Washington, where one of the first Kia Boys videos originated from, police say they saw 38 car thefts per-month in May and June. Authorities in Minneapolis have received an estimated 1,899 reports of stolen Kia’s since the beginning of 2023, up 18 percent from the same period in 2022.

Kia-Hyundai issued free security upgrades for their vehicles in February, and in May settled a lawsuit over the car thefts to the tune of $200 million. Yet despite their recognition of the problem, it persists.

It’s estimated that over 8 million vehicles in the U.S. remain easy targets for joy riders.

Prevention, says Jennifer Chapman, is in the hands of the owner. “We want to harden the target,” she told FOX4. “We want [car owners] to go get the wheel locks, to go get the software updates, and that way if somebody is looking inside your vehicle they won’t see it as an easy opportunity to commit this crime.”