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Today, Explained

The Kia Boyz are coming for your car

Today, Explained

Vox

News, Daily News, Politics

4.310.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Turns out Kias and Hyundais are easy to steal. Teens are taking advantage, and putting it all on TikTok. This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My name is Taylor Dorell. I am a freelance writer in Columbus, Ohio.

0:06.0

How did you come to write about this story where people are stealing kias and Hyundai's?

0:12.0

So I first found out about this phenomenon by my sister's car being stolen.

0:20.0

What? Yes.

0:22.0

You have a personal connection. The kiawais were thrust upon me.

0:26.0

They stole my sister's car and it was just severely damaged and not where it was supposed to be.

0:33.0

And the only thing stolen was my sister's strawberry candy.

0:38.0

So was it stolen by an eight-year-old?

0:41.0

It was stolen by 12 to 15-year-olds. Yes, that is the demographic of the kiawais as I later found out.

0:49.0

Kia and Hyundai thefts are up 100 percent. More than 100,000 of these cars went missing last year.

0:55.0

The kiawais are coming up on today's plane.

0:59.0

Support for the show today comes from Into the Mix, a podcast from Ben and his buddy Jerry about joy and justice produced in partnership with Vox Creative.

1:10.0

As state legislatures consider more than 500 anti-trans bills.

1:15.0

The latest episode of Into the Mix asks how you can best support and protect transgender youth.

1:23.0

You can find Into the Mix now and subscribe.

1:28.0

So the kiawais aren't just a car theft ring. They've become the kind of cultural phenomenon. They have their own slang.

1:39.0

They make their own music. They of course upload these videos of them driving around, often to the very music that they make.

1:47.0

Kia and Hyundai are driving around.

1:52.0

And they call themselves boys because these boys are definitely underage?

1:57.0

Yes, so most of these kids don't even have a license.

2:00.0

And so you often find that the younger the kids are that are stealing these, the more cars they end up stealing because of how fast they total them.

2:08.0

So the kid will steal a Kia, they'll crash it, and then they'll be like, well, the night is still young.

...

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