www.wafb.com/2024/01/27/woman-says-her-kia-has-been-stolen-3-times-even-after-security-upgrade/
Woman says her Kia has been stolen 3 times, even after the security upgrade
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5mo
We will have sex in your car again!
This triggered a vague memory of a film in which ~ 4 old homeless guys climbed out of a parked car and told this to the shocked owner.
But I can't remember what the film was or anything - except it was a very funny scene...
Any hints welcome :-)
The Other Guys
Brilliant! My crappy memory thanks you
The Other Guys. With Samuel L Jackson and The Rock.
lmao I see what you did there
Best opening scene ever.
Brilliant! My crappy memory thanks you, too!
Damnit, you ruined the story.
“I don’t understand the reference”
Sounds like you might be chasing waterfalls.
It will happen!
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5mo
The most hilarious thing is, if it's old enough it has an immobilizer. My 2010 did, and the three 2006-2009's we had all did. They quit putting them in around 2012ish. Literally to save like $10 a car.
My mother's Hyundai was starting to show signs of wear and tear shortly before it got stolen and totaled. She's much happier with her new Ford.
As a former owner of a 2002 Spectra, this was my first thought.
I drive a Spectra right now. If it weren’t for this TikTok BS, it would have been the perfect car for me.
don't forget the CCR
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5mo
you know they aren't carjacking them, right?
Just a tad bit of a problem:
On Friday, Milwaukee police told WTMJ there were 308 vehicle thefts so far in 2024.
Sixty-four of them have been Kias, down compared to a year ago, when there were 495 vehicle thefts year to date, 159 of them being Kias.
Tbh we had 3 days of heavy snow this year followed by 3 days of below 0 temps not counting the windchills. Jan 2023 40s most of the month.
Not knocking the number but I’m curious to see the amount of Kias driven in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee resident checking in. A decent amount, same for Hyundai (same problem as the kias) but less over the last few years as cars get trashed, people sell them so they don’t get stolen.
Jesus Christ isn’t it January still? Thats more than ten cars a day
6 months of January it feels like
How many Hyundais?
Remote self destruct button. That’ll show those punks!
There’s literally nothing that Kia can do about this problem, it’s hopeless. Except in Canada where the government required immobilizers and therefore there is no theft problem in Kias at all, likely to the cost of about $10 per car.
(To be clear, Canada has a huge problem with car theft, just that this particular vulnerability doesn’t exist here. Also, there are no Kia plants in Canada, they’re literally coming off the same US and Korean assembly lines as the US variants)
Also, the news report mentioned that if the lady had actually LOCKED her car WITH THE FOB then the security system would have WORKED after the update! Which insinuates that she didn't lock her car properly, or even at all.
SMH
Wait, so hitting the door lock button on the door as you get out is the wrong way to do it now?
She probably didn't want her window broken. People in some cities get tired of windows getting broken.
FINALLY one of these articles actually mentions how it works. I've read so many claiming the security update does nothing, but no one seems to know how they were getting around it. Turns out... it was always user error!
Hard to blame the individuals though, my dealer didn't tell me shit about how to actually use the security update. I only know how it works because I spent the time to look into it myself
There's really nothing they can do? Have they said as much or?
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5mo
that'll teach that one person who keeps using my toothbrush
I apologize for nothing!
"Hey, uh... you know that gluing fake gemstones on your steering wheel like you did is a really bad idea? They turn into shrapnel if the airbag ever goes off."
"Exactly." waves a remote control
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5mo
Hidden kill switches are super easy to wire up. There’s a bunch of YouTube “how to” videos as well.
I'm pretty sure ChrisFix has a video on one.
with the way these Kia stories and car theft stories have been played in the media the past few years i'm surprised someone hasn't actually done something like that. Like what Mark Robber does for his youtube videos but more boom boom than fart spray.
Well they're kia owners, not F350 owners.
Remote ejector seat
Ejecto-seato cuz
Damnit Rome, you beat me to this comment
How about the door lock them in and the cabin is filled with poisonous gas, then the body is ejected?
I'll never buy a kia or Hyundai specifically for this reason.
It sucks, some of their newest models are really great, but Kia boys are dumbfucks and will break into any vehicle with the Kia or Hyundai brand slapped on it, not knowing which are the models that can't be stolen.
We got a fuckin genius over here guys.
BONUS: only gets stolen once
They already have a self destruct mode:
The engine.
But did she buy a club?
That literally was the security upgrade that Kia offered me. A steering wheel lock (essentially a club) until they could get parts to do the real fix.
The club doesn’t even slow the Kia Boyz down….
That guy who installed flamethrowers on his car to stop thieves in South Africa might have been onto something
You do that in America, and that Kia Boy's family is gonna have to get in the witness protection program to get away from all the contingency lawyers trying to take their case.
A 13 year old in Columbus, OH just got kidnapped for trying to steal a Kia. The car owners took him hostage at gunpoint and then called his dad demanding $3,000 for damages to the car.
These kids are playing with fire and people are getting tired of the crimes essentially going unpunished. It's only a matter of time before one of these kids gets smoked for fucking with the wrong vehicle.
Long time city dweller here. If I was in the jury I would probably nullify. People are getting VERY tired of being victimized and shit gets scary knowing so many leveled at that point.
I don't condone it, but I understand it
found the kia boy^
ROFL. Newp
it does when you hit them with it
It's a good security measure TBH. Anything that makes it more difficult will cause a criminal to move to the car that doesn't have it.
I don't know how good your common car thief is, but I saw a video by a physical pen tester a while back where he defeated one of those in about fifteen seconds. I think extra layers of protection are a better deterrent when you don't have people specifically targeting your car, or car brand in their case.
No, it's complete dogshit. All you have to do to remove it is cut through the steering wheel and bend it to slip the club off, which is very easy to do on modern cars b/c of crash safety standards. Clubs will stop idiots looking for a joyride, but any semi-experienced car thief can remove one in under 10 seconds.
Idiots looking for a joyride are a significant amount of car thefts though. It's the reason that woman's car was stolen 3 times.
The kids stealing these Kias to use in robberies and other crimes won't do this and car thieves that would go to this trouble can certainly do better than a shitty Kia. Club all the way to fix this problem.
lol I'm sorry, cut through the steering wheel? Just to steal a shit car?
This happened to me as work. In broad daylight where we had a security guard … he’s the one who asked me hey where was my car?? … when it was stolen the 2nd time(yes my car was stolen twice from work, a month apart -no it was not a Kia) from the parking lot( literally small lot too).
It was found recovered with electrical tape where they cut off the steering wheel lock. They really wanted my car … I guess but couldn’t open the hood the first time ( special hood lock). They still couldn’t open the hood but stole the whole car anyways. People will find a way.
What was your make and model of your car?
It was probably on Nick Cage's list so it's gotsa be fancy.
lol, 2016 Nissan Versa. They just wanted good gas mileage. She’s called Sophia on Cages wall of cars.
7hrs later and still nothing
It's easier than you think. Bolt cutters will easily do it, you could probably even do it with a pair of garden shears or tin snips. Wheels are made to bend/deform easily so they don't mangle your face in an accident like they used to in cars pre 1980
Are you a car thief?
No I think there was a an episode of Mythbusters or some similar show back in the 2000s that showed how easy it was to disable steering wheel locking devices. Think about it, they've been around since the 1980s, but they are not used widespread. If they were truly effective, every single car of middling to very high value would have one installed.
Or a vehicle safety expert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tFEiSS1APM It's very easy, most steering wheels are just some plastic/rubber, you could cut through them with enough force using a sharp enough pair of scissors if the scissors don't break. Garden shears will probably do it, bolt cutters will DEFINITELY do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd2Op5VpUrg Here it is being done with either a saw or what look like branch cutters.
It's like putting the world's most secure door on wooden hinges in a wooden house. They'll just break the wall off to the side.
On this glorious day, we all are.
What if they just make a new club that's a star shape and would require a thief to cut the entire steering wheel into 5 pieces?
Brake club is a better option, but it's less obvious, so people break into your car before they see it
Clubs will stop idiots looking for a joyride,
yeah that is who is stealing Kias.
Yes but hopefully the semi experienced car thief is going to steal something worth a lot more than my beat up Kia. The club stops dumb ass kids and most of the homeless. I also have one of those seatbelt locks just to be annoying.
Why would someone spend several minutes with hacksaw they probably don’t have with them when they could take the next car in lot in 2 minutes?
No, it’s complete dogshit
Later
Clubs will stop idiots looking for a joyride but any semiprofessional car thief can remove one in ten seconds.
Ok so is it complete dogshit, or a decent preventative device for a good portion of car thefts?
I was actually the Photojounalist on this story…and the second time it was stolen she actually had a club install. They apparently just loosened it enough and drove off with the club still on the wheel.
Donut Media showed that all you need is a metal drill bit and a drill and the wheel locks become absolutely useless. And not like... minutes worth of drilling. Like half a minute.
This is Milwaukee. A club isn't stopping anyone.
It is amusing to see Kias and Hyundais driving around with their emblems covered as a security measure though.
I was assuming this wasn't Milwaukee because if it was then this wouldn't be news. Turns out it is Milwaukee and it is still news somehow
Every single one of us knows someone who has been or ourselves have been the victim of a car theft. So far I've been lucky (I don't drive a Kia or Hyundai) but I know several people whose cars have been stolen.
Do you beat people with this club? Or it more like the Hair Club membership?
I was wondering what a Club Sandwich was going to do to stop thief... Make give the thief a stomach ache if they eat it after being left in a hot car all day?
Every time. My first thought as well.
My sister bought a European "Club" model that is a big ass disc that goes over the steering wheel. It's as effective as a club but is much more noticeable for these problems.
Even better, she should just buy a pitbull and train it to nap in the back seat at night.
Instructions unclear, pit bull is eating a toddler rn
The only way to stop a bad guy with a USB stick is a good guy with a USB stick?
Good guy with a stick. Says “u sorry bitch” It’s the “usb” not yet but you will be stick.
Should I call an ambulance?
And yet my janky yet fully insured Kia can remains untouched. FML.
Painters covered my kia and when they took the cover off, they took the radio antenna cover off too! Janky kias are the best. Paid off and working. My favorite kind of car.
Damn, why do so many people want to steal a 2014 Kia Optima?
It's pretty much just inner city youth stealing for joyride
And a lot of stolen cars are used to commit other crimes
Weirdly, we are not seeing stolen kias used in a lot of the crime. The stolen kias/Hyundai get joyrided, dumped, then another one gets stolen. Stolen nissans with fake paper tags are the ones used in violent crimes, and stolen Silverados are used most often for other burglary/theft offenses. But because Motor vehicle theft is a property crime, people don't take it seriously. It's fucking stupid
With how many people out there one paycheck away from homelessness, stealing a car should be punished the way horse thrives used to be.
(I’m against the death penalty, but car theft really needs to be taken more seriously)
What I always go to is, if you think "oh, it's just property crime." You must be very privileged. Go ask someone in a low income area how important their work truck is to them, same as their tools.
It’s somehow a fucking TikTok trend, look up Kia boyz
Because it’s really easy. You can do it with only a USB cable.
Why not add a kill switch? Then nobody could steal the car.
Then you’d just have your window smashed in over and over from people trying to steal your Kia.
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5mo
Please elaborate
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5mo
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5mo
Yeah let me just leave my window down in Ohio in January…
I knew a guy who left his car unlocked and the driver window down with nothing in it because of this. Someone still broke his window then shit in his car.
Leave it unlocked.
My dad had a classic car that he would occasionally take long trips with my mom in. Which meant parking it at hotels at times. So he installed his own antitheft features. god forbid he install an actual alarm though. There was a series of 5 toggle switches under the dash. 1 up, 2 up, 3 down, etc to feed power to the ignition. This was not enough though: there was a master power switch hidden up under the dash further that powered the combination lock panel. This was still not enough. He installed a pressure switch directly to the horn from the door. Open the door without first deactivating it, horn blades nonstop. (You may think that sounds like a regular car alarm and the snwer is shhhh) That was still not enough. He also bought a "clutch club". See, stick shifts have a safety feature where you need to push the clutch in to start it. So the clutch club goes between the floor and the clutch and makes it so you can't press it in.
Now, to be fair, the car was never stolen. It would also have been absurdly easy to locate if it had been, being a 2 tone 56 Chevy with an engine loud enough to wake 2 city blocks.
So the lesson is... I have no idea. But a single killswitch hidden somewhere easy to access (for you) does seem like it's worth the effort and $2 it would take to do yourself.
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5mo
One big benefit of the wheel lock (which Kia provides to all affected vehicle owners for free) is just that it's so visible. So if someone comes up to my Kia and sees it has the lock on it they might think "eh, this one isn't worth the trouble, lets just look for another 5 minutes and find another one". And honestly if someone wants the car so bad that they actually cut the wheel or drill out the lock or whatever, then they can just have it. I've been looking for an excuse to get a new car and at least insurance should give me something for it which would be good because I doubt that my faded paint, high mileage, easy to steal, might blow up at any second 12 year old Kia Soul is going to be worth shit when I go to sell/trade it some day lol.
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5mo
You installed a 400amp kill switch?
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5mo
Wow sounds like a honker
The best hidden switch I have heard of was a guy on here with an older Jeep that had no doors and top.
He installed a magnetic switch to the ignition that he ran under the dash. He then had a bobble head with a magnet on the bottom you had to place on the dash to crank it.
Kill switches are the simplest best solution to car theft. My grandpa used to add them and they pretty much made theft a non issue
Flat-beds hate this one simple trick.
Car theft is not an issue for most people unless they have someone specifically targeting them, or they are older vehicles with very easy to defeat security.
In this case, the KIA BOYZ are targeting... Kias. Specifically Kias with virtually no security from the manufacturer.
Back when I worked on cars I'd encounter ones with kill switches occasionally. It was always quicker to find it than it would have been to walk back from the lot and ask where it was. Center console, under the driver's seat, under the dash, or wired into one of the existing switches. No one is going to put it in the trunk or under the hood unless it's something they only use when they go out of town or something.
A kill switch might be useful against the absolute stupidest more incompetent car thieves but that's it.
You can install a proximity switch that needs a magnet to activate. Hide the switch behind a panel and then there’s nothing to find.
If we are getting fancy just install an rfid or Bluetooth switch. Which is basically what the car should already have had. They are under $50
Then you are back to how Kias are so easy to steal in the first place.
Ohhh or a pneumatic actuated dildo hidden in the seat with a remote switch! You could fuck em real good with that!
I have a better suggestion
A lot of victim blaming going on here.
That's been going around it seems.
What was the car wearing?
New to reddit?
On Friday, Milwaukee police told WTMJ there were 308 vehicle thefts so far in 2024.
Sixty-four of them have been Kias, down compared to a year ago, when there were 495 vehicle thefts year to date, 159 of them being Kias.
“Honestly, it happens so often that I think Milwaukee Police Department, they’re just so used to the police reports at this point,” Nguyen said.
When will they realize that the main problem is not the cars, it's people?
The police say not to worry because soon the overseas market will be saturated with stolen cars and there won't be so much of a demand.
Sad thing is they aren’t stealing them to sell. They steal them because of boredom and TikTok fame (Kia boyz)
Where I'm at, they use them to commit other crimes, like smash & grab, stick-ups, drive-by shootings and so on.
My Hyundai was stolen to do drugs in. The cop told me it was mostly high school kids stealing them because it was super easy to do. Kids literally just drive the car until it's out of gas, pull over, and steal another one. It takes under a minute to steal a non button start Kia/Hyundai if you're quick.
I'm sure some are being used to commit other crimes, but a ton are just bored teenagers fucking around, in my city anyway. And it's entirely on Kia/Hyundai, which is why they're being sued to fuck. Being cheap assholes and not installing a cheap part that every other manufacturer uses to stop exactly these kind of thefts.
Kia has been stolen 3 times, even after the security upgrade
Even if the "fix" were bulletproof, the very fact that every 12 year old in the hood now knows just how easily these are stolen means that your car will perpetually be broken into.... So BEST case is that the car isn't stolen but you still have a busted door/window and the bottom of the steering column ripped apart.
That’s what happened to mine a week ago. Except my KIA is older so the USB hack doesn’t work. They realized that after smashing my window and getting the column all busted.
The fact she got it back at least 2 times is kind of impressive.
This post tells us that Kia still has a problem and Milwaukee is a shit city to live in.
Kia needs to do an ignition switch recall. That’s the only thing that will if this. It’s their own fault. The consumer should not suffer due to their poor design
Just traded in my Elantra today. Insurance premium are going up for Kia/Hyundai and some providers won't even cover them because of the theft issues
The worst part of this is that she got it back.
“The cop said “Maybe they took it for a joy ride.”
I said, listen asshole, it’s not a joy to ride in”
Lewis Black, circa early 2000s.
My crv has been stolen 4 times, it always gets found and returned. I admit I'm a dumbass, and I finally went to the seattle police station and they gave me a free club.
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5mo
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5mo
Normally it is just an easy ride, but the last guy actually was going for the long run. He retrofitted my broken window from the previous time it was stolen, and also he was trying to vacuum the car when he was arrested lol. He ended up taking out the fuse box or whatever its called because he didn't want someone else to steal it from him. Every time I get it back, it's in a little worse condition, but it's still working nicely. The one big gripe I have besides not having my car is they always leave a bunch of random nasty drug shit in the car, like sticks with residue, foil everywhere, a bunch of shit that I have no idea what they even could be. It's always the not so fun drugs that they leave traces of.
My brother in law did this. He has mental issues and my mother in law borrowed my car since hers was in the shop for the weekend.
She usually slept with the keys under her pillow as he was pretty delusional. Well he managed to get the keys while she was sleeping and took the car. He drove it about two hours on the interstate and ran it out of gas. He then hitchhiked another hour then an officer found him wandering in a field. They had him in holding till my MIL could get him home. I had to take a PTO day to drive up and pick up the car on the side of the highway and bring it back. The battery was drained too as he left it on since weather was cold out.
I was glad he was safe but pissed about the situation.
Apparently insurance companies are increasing costs for Kia drivers due to all the thefts.
My lease will be up this year, and let's just say I will never be doing business with Kia again because of this issue. No other issues with my Forte, but I can't be driving around in a literal target. Before the Kia Boys blew up, I was planning on buying my car after the lease, but now? No. Sorry Kia. Maybe don't take shortcuts for short term profits. I can't wait to see the dealers face when they get my uninsurable car that nobody will want to buy.
Sounds like the neighborhood they work or live in just sucks
In milwaukee it's pretty much everywhere :/
Kia boyz are just showing off at this point.
My thought is why aren't they banned from Tiktok at this point or social media sites??
content = views = ads = revenue
You're surprised an app owned by a rival economic superpower country would amplify trends harmful to the US?
Could be harmful to other countries but I guess not. They may actually have standards unlike the US.
Knew it was Milwaukee before clicking, the Kia boys are maniacs
It’s just a game for thieves at this point lol
I guess that means their lives are a game too. I'm curious to see the headlines about people getting shot from pulling these stunts. It's wild to me that nothing seems to come of the thefts even though if you search "Kia Boyz" on Instagram you get vids of their stupid faces plain as day all over the place.
I guess crime isn't really a problem anymore. /s
Buy an alarm. Look at small piezo sirens called 'pain causers'. Place 2-3 of them hidden in the vehicle. Under the seats, under the dash...
With a few of those going off inside the car, you just want to leave right now.
Ive always wanted the thing in the OG Robocop that electrocutes thieves.
People need to stop buying those shit cars.
At this point if I'm leaving my car anywhere even remotely dicey I just take the ignition relay out of the fuse box and leave it in the sunglasses holder lol, good luck stealing that without a flatbed assholes
Tell me your from Milwaukee without telling me your from Milwaukee
oh its way beyond Milwaukee now
back in the day, circa '02ish when hwy 145 still had the overpass, my '00 civic si was stolen from ogden and cass in a closed lot. i got a call from the cops nine days later and they found the car, on blocks, no tags, keyed up with names all over it around 35th and vliet... with seven parking tickets on it.
car was reported stolen within three hours of it going missing. it took me longer to get those tickets dismissed than it took to get the car rebuilt, repainted and back in my hands.
mke don't give a fuck.
remove the fuel pump relay/fuse
These cars are pure shit
It's really infuriating because even if I get there security device that they keep on sending letters about ( it's just a steering wheel lock), people are going to be breaking windows and doing their best to get it off and trying to start it. And besides that I am never going to be able to sell my car. Even if I wanted to do a trade at a dealership there's no way in hell that I'm going to get anything worth.
They're better than anything Chrysler pumps out, and more reliable than Ford. They just had a usb flaw that nobody noticed until years later.
It's not a usb flaw like an infotainment issue, the cars don't have an immobilizer installed from the factory as a cost cutting measure.
So someone can rip down the plastic steering column and jam in a USB stick (shape is all that matters, could be anything but a USB happens to fit well) to turn the ignition without a matching key fob present which is the epitome of short sighted engineering decisions forced by management to make a few more bucks per car.
My friend who lived on cap hill up until recently had her Kia stolen 6 times. Cops got it back every time but it was always trashed but not totaled. Months and months of driving rentals and paying out of her pocket until insurance pays out for damages which was always way behind. Kia sucks.
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5mo
Yeah. In some places they can't even get insurance
What a joke of a car company, I don't know how they are staying in business
How is there not a class action lawsuit ?
Not that it's her fault .. but after the 3rd time I'd let them keep it so the insurance totals it.
Do Americans not use immobilisers? As far as I'm aware this isn't a problem in Australia.
There's no law requiring them. Basically everyone uses them but 2 brands decided to not use them for a few years.
Any competent mechanic could wire in and hide a kill switch in a couple of hours at most for minimal cost. Just saying. This is clearly Kia's baby.
I have an older Kia. I hope that if it gets stolen, the cops never find it because God forbid I get it back and it's fucked up.