PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Those who drive older Kias and Hyundais are resting a little easier, at least in Pierce County.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) told KIRO Newsradio auto theft across the county is down significantly from its peak in the summer of 2023. Over a three-month period, deputies responded to more than 460 car thefts or attempted car thefts.
“I’d come on to shift, on patrol and there’d be five or six stolen car reports and by the time we got those cleared up there’d be ten more,” PCSD Deputy Carly Cappetto said.
Fania Sip’s Kia was one of those victims.
“Sometimes I didn’t go out,” he said. “I don’t want to park anywhere I knew my Kia would get stolen again. It got stolen twice. They broke my window and when I went in to get a replacement, there were four other Kia owners that were there.”
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The department said several factors contributed to the decline.
“I would say, over the last couple of years, the ‘Kia Boys,’ most of them have been arrested, so there’s not a lot of them out there,” Cappetto said.
Other factors included: public awareness and extra caution among drivers, multi-agency auto theft task forces, aggressive prosecution of teens, automakers fixing vulnerabilities in Kias and Hyundais and a change in the Pierce County Pursuit policy, which allows deputies to chase property crime suspects.
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“That was a huge turning point,” Cappetto shared. “We could actually do our job and go after them and make it harder for them to get away.”
Cappetto said her heart goes out to the victims. Many of them couldn’t afford to pay for repairs or for the time their car spent in an impound lot.
“People who live in apartment complexes, single moms, elderly people, people who didn’t have the funds or the resources to invest a ton of money to secure their vehicles,” Cappetto said.
These combined efforts have brought the theft rates back down to where they were prior to the big spike.
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Sip is glad most of the threat appears to be gone and can rest a little easier.
“I’m happy they’re being proactive about it because I’d rather they do something than not,” he said. “All we did is file a report and it didn’t go anywhere. So, it’s nice to have a sense of security with them doing their work.”
However, the problem has not been completely eradicated as evidenced by some recent high-profile crimes where stolen Hyundais were used by juveniles to ram into local businesses and schools.
“Our agency, other local agencies and the Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force continue efforts to apprehend these suspects and prevent future crimes,” PCSD said.
James Lynch is a reporter at KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of James’ stories here. Follow James on X, or email him here
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