ST. CLOUD – The social media-fueled trend of teens stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles for “joyriding” has finally made its way to central Minnesota.
The thefts — fueled mostly by TikTok videos of teens, some of whom are too young to legally drive — made headlines across the country and in the Twin Cities a few years ago after the number of stolen vehicles skyrocketed, some resulting in crashes with injuries or deaths.
But that trend hasn’t been a problem in St. Cloud until recently, when the city has seen an “aggressive increase,” according to Police Chief Jeff Oxton.
Until recent weeks, where police documented more than 30 incidents of vehicles that were stolen or attempted to be stolen, police had just seen a slight uptick in Kia and Hyundai thefts.
“Then all of a sudden, just recently, we’ve had a few nights where there have been multiple attempts and a few thefts,” Oxton said. “They just take them joyriding and abandon them.”
In one instance, police were dispatched to the 1400 block of 9th Avenue S. in St. Cloud for a Kia that struck a car and a tree just before 8 a.m. on May 12. The investigation revealed a 13-year-old boy stole the Kia through an ignition switch exploit and then fled the scene.
The following day, just after 11 p.m., officers were dispatched to the 600 block of 6th Avenue S. after the owner of a Kia caught two boys — ages 14 and 16 — inside their car attempting to start it. Both boys were arrested and were later turned over to their parents, according to Oxton.
After a security vulnerability in the cars’ ignition system was shared widely on social media, the number of stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles in Minneapolis and St. Paul jumped from roughly 350 in 2021 to nearly 3,500 in 2022. The following year, Kia/Hyundai thefts jumped to 4,500 in Minneapolis.
