- [Reporter] The screech of stolen cars
can be heard ripping through roads.
- They're stealing Kias and Hyundais
with a cell phone charger
- [Reporter 2] And a new viral trend that is now,
a real life menace.
- [Bystander] I don't give a fuck where you at.
If you were in Japan, Australia,
you in the middle of Antarctica.
And you got a kid that's on that please be safe
'cause I'm gon' beat your ass, whoever did this, bro.
(dramatic music)
- Earlier this year the Kia Boyz challenge took over TikTok
and because of it, thousands of cars just like this one
have been stolen with nothing more than a screwdriver
and an iPhone cable.
How the hell do you steal a car with just these two things?
Well, today we're gon' find out. Welcome to Donut.
- [TikTok Voice] Kia Boy.
- Couple of months ago, TikToks of kids stealing cars
with nothing more than a USB cable
and calling themselves the Kia Boyz went viral.
(Kia Boyz laugh)
That trend started with a bunch of kids in Milwaukee.
Figured out that certain model Kias and Hyundais,
were unusually easy to steal.
So they started breaking into them
and then joy riding them around town.
Noah, have you heard of the Kia Boyz?
(both laugh)
And then look at this guy.
(both laugh)
- It's just hilarious 'cause like these,
okay, no offense to Kia,
they're like the most boring cars to steal.
- I know.
- Every video I've seen of this tomfoolery,
it's just, like, kid swerving,
like this guy he's just swerving back and forth.
It's a crime of almost convenience.
You know, like these are super easy to steal
and then just do this. Just swerve back and forth.
- [Jeremiah] Just swerving. - Just swerving.
- And they have their seatbelt on.
(Noah laughs)
- This is what happens when you defund schools.
(intense music)
- This is a lady who's a victim of it.
- That sucks.
- So they trashed her car.
- [Carol] She was Gurty and she was my pride and joy.
- She's talk about the car, right?
- She's not anymore.
- Why do they have to use the name?
- I love it. - Gurty.
- Like it's a person.
- [Reporter 3] McFarlane is among Milwaukee's
nearly 4,000 victims of car theft this year.
Many at the hands of the Kia Boyz stealing Hyundais and Kias
for joy rides. Compared to this...
- Oh, no!
- [Reporter 3] Thefts are down a bit.
- [Carol] My car, my baby, Gurty, is out there
maybe jumping on a curve and hitting somebody.
- I feel bad for these people.
- I feel bad too.
Nolan doesn't give me a (beep) about these people.
The fact that there's a another one, another one,
another one.
- That was comedy gold
- That was insane.
- That was insane, dude.
Carol, I'm sorry that happened to your car.
- And we're sorry to hear about Gurty.
- But, dude, Gurty (bleep) sucked it, dude.
- But this isn't something that's just happening
in Milwaukee it's happening nationwide.
In Detroit, 111 Kias were stolen in the month of July.
In Charlotte, North Carolina 156 Kias and Hyundais
were stolen in the same month.
And cops even in Chicago have reported a 767% increase
in vehicle thefts. Even here in Los Angeles,
there have already been over 1600 more Kias and Hyundais
stolen compared to last year.
So what I wanna know is how are the Kia Boyz doing this?
Now, a car's ignition system is a pretty simple combination
of a lock cylinder and an electrical switch.
Use the right key and you can rotate that cylinder
to activate a switch which closes off a circuit
to engage the starter.
Now in the past, thieves could steal your car
by taking a screwdriver and ramming it
into the ignition cylinder or by using some sort
of contraption like this to hot wire your car.
Now hot wiring your car isn't like what it is in the movies
but the idea is you can rip apart the steering column
which we've already done.
You can pull out the wiring from behind the ignition
cylinder and then take some sort of jumper wire
and jump some of these lines bypassing the switch itself
in the ignition cylinder and starting a car.
Let's see if I can actually get this thing started.
Is the lips cool?
- [Nolan] Yeah, I like the lip.
- Okay, I'm gonna look at the back of this plug here.
What I need to do is just (beep)
push into clutch.
(car starting)
Heck yeah, hotwired my first car.
Now that wasn't particularly hard to do
but for the past couple decades
most automobile manufacturers have been defending
against those types of attacks
by installing immobilizers and using chipped keys.
Now using a chipped key installs a second electrical circuit
to the starting system.
That system only functions if the car detects the correct
radio signal from a microchip in the keys.
Even if you bypass that immobilizer by hot wiring it
most cars will also have a steering lock
That lock won't disengage unless you have a key
in the ignition, making it nearly impossible to drive away
with your car. Unless you just wanna steer off
in that steering wheel locked position the entire time
then you're golden.
Now the downside to all of this is that immobilizers
and chipped keys are often fairly expensive
and if you happen to lose your key, you often have to go
to the dealership to get it reprogrammed.
And because of that extra expense
some cheaper cars don't include them.
Which brings us to the Kia challenge.
This is our buddy Connor's 2019 Hyundai Elantra
which has actually already been stolen once
so we're gonna try to steal it a second time
with nothing more than a screwdriver and a USB cable
you don't even really need this
but I'm gonna use it 'cause I want to try to be delicate.
And when I say USB cable like this I'm not transferring data
I'm just physically using this shape matches
up nicely with the backside of that ignition cylinder.
Pop this off. That's good.
So I've taken this apart with two screws
so we don't break the plastic but what these guys do
is this plastic's so flimsy these old tabs,
you just rip this down and these tabs pop off.
So I'm going to get my plug out the way.
See this? This is the problem area right here.
(long beep)
Under it, yank it completely out.
So I'm gonna depress this and pull this cylinder out.
And there we have it.
So we got the ignition cylinder out.
And so what this does is it mates up
with the ignition cylinder right here, that looks to be
about the same size, just a USB plug.
So here we go. Jam it on there.
Moment of truth, 3, 2, 1.
(dramatic music)
Building tension. Suspense. Will it work?
(car starting)
Heck yeah. Holy crap. Yo, I'm part of the Kia Boyz.
I'm a Kia Boy now. Nice, craziness. Absolute craziness.
Hop in Nick, let's go do some Kia Boy stuff.
- [Nick] Kia Boyz application.
- So how some teenagers figured this out, I have no clue.
But what I do know is that some engineers over at Kia
definitely messed up.
How could such a large car company mass manufacture
a car that's so easy to steal?
So we reached out to Kia to see what they had to say
about the problem and received a very polite
but largely uninformative response.
They said, it is unfortunate that criminals are using
social media to target vehicles without engine immobilizers
calling it a coordinated effort by those criminals.
They also added that all of our vehicles meet
or exceed federal motor vehicles safety standards.
But it turns out not everyone agrees with that.
And there's now a class action lawsuit
against Kia in Hyundai in several states.
And by the way, if you're in the courtroom watching this,
go to donutmedia.com and get yourself a
"I was in a courtroom where a donut media video played"
t-shirt. The thing is, other car manufacturers don't have
this problem, at least that we know of.
And if Kia isn't gonna tell us what the problem is
well, we're just gonna have to find out ourselves.
Oh this, you join. So we ripped out the ignition cylinder
from the cabrio that I hot wired earlier
and I went online and I bought the same ignition cylinder
from the Hyundai that I also stole.
I'm gonna take these two, compare them
and see what the differences are.
Okay, so you remember that plug
that I removed from the cabrio before that let me hot wire
the car? Well, this is where it mates up to in the backside
of the cylinder.
Now if I pop this off, you can see when you twist this key
it rotates that little pin right there
and that pin fits on the backside of this connector.
And when you rotate that, that connector jumps these pins
and allows the car to start.
Unfortunately, getting this piece out is a major (beep).
You had to take the whole steering shaft out
to be able to get enough room to pull this piece out.
So while it is similar in how it functions compared
to Kia, it's much, much harder to get
to the vulnerable piece to get the car to be able to start.
Okay, so let's look at this Kia cylinder and see
how it differs. Like we did earlier, all I have to do
is push this little pin in and that whole assembly pops out
exposing our nice little USB slot which we can turn
and crank the car over.
Now we did it this way 'cause we were being non-destructive
but if I were a real Kia Boy, all I would have to do
is take a screwdriver, pry it in here and just wiggle this
a little bit, bend it enough to where it pops that pin,
that pin is the only thing preventing this whole entire
assembly from popping out.
So the fatal flaw in the Kia system
is that small, little pin. That's it.
So why did Kia put these in their cars in the first place?
Well, it seems to me the only answer is cost.
All of this could have been avoided by using an immobilizer
and in fact, cars in Canada have this same system in it
but use an immobilizer because they're required by law
to do so. And this affects cars from 2011
all the way to 2021.
If you were to factor in all the different models
that use this over that many years, that is a ton
of money that Kia saved and now Gurty's gone.
So how can you protect yourselves
if you own one of these cars?
Well, Kia says they're working with local law enforcement
to provide free wheel locks
to those in highly affected areas.
But the problem is this is a nationwide thing
and they're only working in places like Milwaukee
St. Louis, Memphis.
And if you don't live in those areas
Kia is offering $170 kit to protect your car.
But that doesn't include the installation cost
which could be up to $500.
If you happen to have a car
and you don't live in those places?
You're gonna have to figure out a solution for yourself.
Maybe a kill switch, maybe another sort of lock.
I don't know. We've done some anti theft videos
here at Donut. Why don't you check one out and watch?
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- Thank you guys so much for watching this video
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'Til next week, bye for now.