Kia thefts in Knoxville a growing trend

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ( WATE ) — Knoxville Police investigators are monitoring a crime trend involving Kia vehicles after an uptick in thefts this year.

The most recent reported crime involving a Kia occurred earlier last week in North Knoxville and resulted in the arrest of three teenagers .

According to KPD spokesperson Scott Erland, the department has been receiving reports indicating an uptick in thefts and attempted thefts of Kias. KPD Crime Analysis and Property Crime detectives are working the cases.

As of mid-July, Kias have been a noticeable portion of vehicle thefts and attempted vehicle thefts in Knoxville since January. Erland shared the vehicle theft numbers of Kias this week:

• January – 7
• February – 14
• March – 16
• April – 19
• May – 14
• June – 9
• July (through July 17th) – 9

By comparison, here are the numbers for all other makes of vehicles:

• January- 39
• February -38
• March – 53
• April – 49
• May – 44
• June – 57
• July (through July 17th) – 28

“Based on those numbers, it appears that Kias do make up a fairly meaningful percentage of the vehicles that have either been stolen or were attempted to be stolen,” Erland said.

Why Kia vehicles? The car make has been targeted for performance crimes in recent years due to what investigators across the country believe to be part of a social media challenge. Most of the reported performance crimes involve teens.

“The sharp uptick has been linked to viral videos, posted to TikTok and other social media platforms, teaching people how to start the cars with USB cables and exploit a security vulnerability in some models sold in the U.S. without engine immobilizers, a standard feature on most cars since the 1990s preventing the engine from starting unless the key is present,” an Associated Press report states .

In Knoxville, however, the so-called “Kia Challenge” has yet to be officially linked to the large portion of Kias targeted in vehicle thefts since January, but investigators are continuing to monitor the issue.

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