Kia and Hyundai car theft increased by 85% in 2022 because of a viral TikTok challenge.
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Social media are great platforms to help educate people and raise awareness about great things worldwide.
Unfortunately, many people are using these platforms to raise strange challenges resulting in significant consequences that might impact people's safety.
One of the recent viral TikTok challenges targets Kia and Hyundai car theft in 2022. According to experts, the challenge resulted in an 85% increase in Kia and Hyundai car thefts compared to last year.
This article highlights all you need to know about this current situation and provides some action items important stakeholders are taking toward protecting public safety. We also provide some recommendations if you're a current owner of one of those vehicles that are targets for car theft in 2022.
Car theft in 2022
Before we dive into the details about the Kia and Hyundai car theft in 2022 because of the TikTok challenge, we need to give you a general overview of the current situation with car theft overall.
According to experts, car theft has increased significantly since the pandemic started. This is because of many reasons, including the fact that people did not drive their vehicles for a long time, increased car prices, and much more.
Experts say that we're seeing about 1/4 million vehicles stolen only in the first three months of 2022, a significant increase compared to the 900,000 vehicles stolen in 2021.
Car theft is not the same in every state, and we're noticing an increase in some states like Washington, DC, Colorado, California, Missouri, and New Mexico. However, the situation is much safer in states like Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Kia and Hyundai car theft in 2022 because of a TikTok challenge
The Kia and Hyundai car theft in 2022 has been the biggest topic in the news over the last couple of days. There is an ongoing trend of breaking into or stealing vehicles from the Kia and Hyundai brands over TikTok.
Unfortunately, the number of stolen vehicles from these two brands increased by 85% from last year, which is a significant increase and indicates a high risk for those owning these vehicles.
More specifically, reporters mentioned that more than 1600 Kia and Hyundai vehicles were stolen only this year in the last couple of months.
Why are Kia and Hyundai the target for the TikTok challenge car theft?
One might wonder why people only target Kia and Hyundai and no other brands. However, according to recent articles published in several news channels, the vehicles have some safety defects that allow criminals to get into or break into them easily without any issues.
The reported number of stolen vehicles mostly affects cars sold between 2010 and 2021.
“For the community, the challenge of owning one of these vehicles, we're asking that you purchase a steering wheel lock,” Moore said during Tuesday's meeting. “You can also install an alarm system. The steering wheel lock will offer a visual and physical deterrent from someone trying to break your glass into your vehicle.”
Washington Times website provided more details about how these people broke into the Kia and Hyundai vehicles. They mentioned that the vehicles were stolen using hot wiring, which impacts the physical ignition system. In other words, if one removes the casing on the bottom of the steering column, thieves can start the ignition system using only a USB cord!
While you might expect that the alarm system will go off immediately, unfortunately, this doesn't happen because once the USB cord is connected, the alarm system will be deactivated. The thieves can get inside the vehicle without any problem.
“The TikTok thing pushed it to the next level. But, even prior to TikTok, the scam — the method was already out there,” Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Juvey Mejia told the Los Angeles Daily News.
How to protect your Kia or Hyundai from car theft in 2022?
After these spreading mills all over the country, owners of Kia and Hyundai are concerned about potential thieves getting into their vehicles. The risk is not only about sealing the car but might involve some other consequences that might impact people's safety.
Therefore, our team put together a list of 10 tips to consider to protect yourself and your vehicle from car theft in 2022. Let's take a closer look below:
1. Choose your parking area
Previously, you might have been OK with parking your vehicle outside or by the driveway. However, considering what's going on now, it is recommended that you choose a parking place that is closed and secured. For example, consider moving in this vehicle-specific brand into the inside garage if you have a closed garage. If you have another vehicle, you might want to put it outside until the thing cools down or until we learn more news about how to protect your vehicle further.
2. Consider additional security systems
There are many third-party security systems that you can somehow connect to your vehicle. This way, your alarm system does not only rely on the one connected to this steering wheel, and you can have additional safety where you might learn about potential thieves getting inside your vehicle.
Depending on the complexity of these devices, you might get even more protection, and you might even get it connected to your phone, so you can learn about what's happening outside.
3. Use security cameras
Suppose you're living in an area where you are nervous about the upcoming tik T.O.K string of stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles. In that case, you might consider adding security cameras to your household. But, first, check your neighborhood regulations about whether you can insult and where you can install these cameras.
Even if whatever happens, you might have proof of who took your car, and these cameras can be extremely handy when things get out of hand.
We recommend that you never approach the thieves because you don't know what type of tools they have, so to protect your safety, having these security cameras is a backup to help you know who took your car without intervening with them.
4. Use tracking devices
Based on what we learned about the new TikTok trend of stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles, we suspect that most criminals don't keep the vehicle, and they break it for fun. However, if someone took your car, you might want to consider investing in a small tracking device.
This way, you can provide some information to your local Police Department, and they can use the information in their system to track your vehicle and probably get it back before the thieves break it or damage it.
5. Remove the valuable items
If your vehicle is a new target for car theft, you must never keep any valuable item inside the car. You don't want it to be a double tragedy to lose your car and lose some important items.
If you're used to keeping your papers and valuable items inside the vehicle, start changing this habit and store them inside your house.
The longer we own our vehicles, the more it turns into our second home, and the easier it is to leave most of our stuff inside the car.
6. Check insurance policies
Not every insurance policy is the same, and if you're an owner of a Kia or Hyundai vehicle, you might want to discuss it with your insurance company and see what they offer in case someone steals your vehicle.
You might want to consider specific upgrades that you want your insurance company to be proactive about the problem and in case something happens to your vehicle.
This is an option, and if you feel that there's going to be a significant increase in your insurance policy, you might want to consider switching to another vehicle and keeping this car inside her house or in a safe place until things cool down.
7. Keep up to date with upgrades
We've heard about certain lawsuits against the manufacturer of Kia and Hyundai because it's much easier to get into those vehicles and the issues with the security system.
What to do if someone steals your Kia or Hyundai?
With the numbers we noticed on the news, this car theft can happen to any one of us. If you work rant the owner of a Kia or Hyundai, you got to understand that the situation might happen to you. Therefore, we would like to provide you with a list of recommendations on what to do if someone stole your car:
1. Stay calm
The first thing you got to do is to stay home as much as possible. Getting nervous and overstressed does not help in this situation because you want to do the right actions to get your vehicle back, hopefully.
Knowing that you are aware of the car theft should be good enough to keep you not surprised that the situation might happen to you. Also, you must implement the recommendations we mentioned before as much as possible to prevent the situation, but be prepared if this happens to you.
2. Reach out to the police
Once you confirm that someone broke into your car, the next step is to contact your police station. Talk to them and explain to them what happened. If you have a tracking device or some security cameras, you can provide these details to the officers so they can track and get your vehicle back if possible.
3. Talk to the insurance company
The next step is to speak to your insurance company and let them know about what happened to your car. We recommend that you have a previous discussion with an insurance company in case something happens to you, and if you have done that already, you should have a good understanding of the next steps. However, if you haven't talked to them, then you want to listen to their options and see if they can help you here
Unfortunately, many entrance policies do not cover such a situation, so if you don't want to deal with negative consequences and are concerned that one might take your car, you might want to invest a little bit more to upgrade your insurance policy at this time.
4. Check your vehicle if it returns
If you are lucky enough, the authorities will be able to bring your vehicle back. Based on what we learned, these thieves do not need to take the vehicle to sell it; In fact, they're just following the challenge to break into the vehicles and break them only.
Therefore, once your vehicle is back, check what was stolen and look for any broken items so you can evaluate how much you will spend fixing this car and whether you want to keep it even or not.
Final thoughts
Unfortunately, there is an increased number of stolen vehicles from Kia and Hyundai because of a viral TikTok challenge.
This article provided all you need to know about the current Kia and Hyundai car theft due to this challenge. We've provided you with details about the number of vehicles stolen, and we listed some recommendations for protecting your vehicle from car theft.
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