A harmful problem spreading on TikTok and different social media platforms has automobile homeowners and police departments on alert throughout the nation — difficult younger teenagers to steal sure vehicles off the road utilizing a USB wire.

The goal? Sure makes and fashions of 2010-2021 Kia and Hyundai automobiles that use a mechanical key, not a key fob and push-button to start out the automobile. Investigators inform CNBC the pattern began final 12 months and the variety of vehicles being stolen is continuous to surge throughout the nation. 

In St. Petersburg, Florida, police reported greater than a 3rd of all automobile thefts there since mid-July are linked to the TikTok problem. Los Angeles officers say the viral pattern has led to an 85% enhance in automobile theft of Hyundais and Kias in contrast with final 12 months.

The story is similar in Chicago, in accordance with Prepare dinner County Sheriff Tom Dart.

“In our jurisdiction alone, [thefts of certain models are] up over 800% within the final month,” he stated. “We see no finish in sight.”

The pattern challenges teenagers to steal a automobile off the road by breaking into the automobile, popping off the steering wheel column and scorching wiring the car utilizing a USB cable, just like the wire used to cost a cellphone. 

“The viral nature of how this has taken off on social media — it is accelerated this like we have by no means seen,” Dart stated. “[The perpetrators are] doing it in 20 to 30 seconds. It actually is as old style as you possibly can think about.”

Dart informed CNBC the thieves are primarily younger teenagers — some, not even sufficiently old to legally drive. The stolen vehicles are sometimes used for joyrides, or used to commit different crimes after which deserted on the aspect of the highway, he stated.

“We had an 11-year-old who was one in every of our most prolific stealers … the notion that they’ll drive is a fantasy,” Dart stated. 

The thieves submit movies on-line of stealing and driving the vehicles, utilizing the hashtag “Kia Boys” — which has greater than 33 million views on TikTok. The social media firm stated in an announcement it “doesn’t condone this conduct which violates our insurance policies and shall be eliminated if discovered on our platform.”

Illinois resident Karen Perkins stated her 2019 Kia Sorrento was stolen from in entrance of her condo on Aug. 6.

“I regarded out the window and realized my automobile was gone,” Perkins stated.

Days later, she was in a rental automobile at a purple mild when she stated her lacking Kia drove proper previous her.

“I noticed a teenage boy sitting within the entrance,” Perkins stated. “I drove across the block … 5 children truly jumped into my automobile — that is once I began to panic — like I will lose my automobile without end.”

Perkins tells CNBC she went on a hunt to trace down her Kia. Hours later, she discovered it abandoned on the aspect of the highway and referred to as police. She stated the deserted Kia was left closely broken. 

“They crashed the entrance of my automobile … they broken the bumper,” Perkins stated. “They even wrote on the highest of my ceiling … it says ‘scorching automobile.'”

Tom Gerszewski, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based filmmaker, tracks the viral crime spree on his YouTube channel in “Kia Boys Documentary,” which has already topped 3.7 million views.

“That is what they do for after-school leisure,” Gerszewski informed CNBC. “They do not actually have a lot of a sympathy for the folks that they are doing this to.”

Ken McClain, an lawyer in Missouri, says a number of the blame for the stealing spree falls on the automakers — Kia and Hyundai — claiming the businesses constructed vehicles which can be too simple to steal.

McClain calls the difficulty a “defect.” His agency has filed class motion lawsuits in 12 states to this point: California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Texas. He is additionally getting ready to file in as many as seven different states.

“We’re receiving dozens of calls a day,” McClain stated. “The producer[s] should be paying for this.”

Kia and Hyundai weren’t capable of touch upon what number of automobiles are included within the make and mannequin years and would probably be in danger.

A Kia spokesperson stated the corporate is worried in regards to the enhance in thefts and has supplied steering free wheel lock units to regulation enforcement officers in affected areas.

“It’s unlucky that criminals are utilizing social media to focus on automobiles with out engine immobilizers in a coordinated effort,” the spokesperson stated.

“Whereas no automobile might be made theft-proof, criminals are looking for automobiles solely outfitted with a metal key and ‘turn-to-start’ ignition system. Nearly all of Kia automobiles in the USA are outfitted with a key fob and “push-button-to-start” system, making them harder to steal. All 2022 Kia fashions and trims have an immobilizer utilized both initially of the mannequin 12 months or as a operating change.”

A Hyundai spokesperson stated the corporate is pursuing the same effort to distribute steering wheel locks and that the corporate will start promoting a safety package subsequent month.

In response to Dart of the Prepare dinner County Sherriff’s Workplace, the old-school wheel lock anti-theft units might go a protracted approach to thwarting the thefts.

“It makes it practically unattainable to maneuver the automobile,” he stated.

— CNBC Specials Web page Peter Ferrarse contributed to this report.