It's happening again. In fact, it never stopped, so police are back with the same old warning that's been swirling around America for the past three years: park your car in a garage and install a steering wheel lock because otherwise, your Hyundai or Kia might be stolen in the blink of an eye.
It's all due to the Kia Challenge that went viral on TikTok in 2021. A vulnerability in certain Kia and Hyundai models allows criminals to start the engine using only a USB cable. However, before they reach the ignition to hotwire the car, thieves break a side window and remove the steering wheel column, sometimes walking away without stealing the car but leaving behind damage worth thousands of dollars.
Everybody believed this horrible trend would end when Hyundai and Kia released an anti-theft update, but because some cars on the road are still unpatched, the Kia Boys—a group of teenagers who learned online how to exploit the security issue—keep having fun stealing cars and wreaking havoc in their communities.
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