Certain Cars Targeted by North Texas Thieves Thanks, in Part, to a Social Media Trend

There's a dark cloud of despair hanging over one Haltom City neighborhood. Recently two Kia Soul vehicles were stolen out of the neighborhood.

"I'm a little irritated and a little annoyed," Michael Giddens said about his daughter’s stolen car.

He shared these pictures of the damage.

"Apparently it looks like they just went on a joy ride,” Giddens said. “But a very rough, hard joyride. It broke the rim and the tire. Did quite some damage to the ignition area."

Their car was dumped in their neighborhood close to where another Kia Soul was stolen.

It's likely part of a trend going around targeting some Kia and Hyundai brand vehicles exposing security weaknesses in certain models.

"Unfortunately, there is a lack of an immobilizer in certain year models that isn't necessarily a new feature people were aware of,” Marshal Protective Services operations officer Nikko Linn said. “But most recently a TikTok video made it extremely popular."

The private security company recently put out a notice to residents at apartments they patrol about the trend.

"A lot of times these cars are being recovered with the damage to the vehicle and with some even being stolen just a few weeks later,” Linn said. “The exact same vehicle just again for the sake of joyriding."

Linn said there are ways to try to protect your car.

"They do make the steering wheel immobilizer that are great tools as well,” Linn said. “They make them in bright colors that you can place on the steering wheel to try and deter them as they are looking into the vehicle."

Neighbors are hoping this is one social media trend that passes soon.

Haltom City isn’t alone.

Forney Police report the department has also seen an increase in stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles specifically.

They have made two arrests and are searching for a third person in connection to the stolen cars in Forney.