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© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
By Ryan DiLello
A TikTok Trend called the “Kia Challenge” is encouraging teens to steal certain makes of cars with a USB cord, and to document it on the social media platform. This week, the trend reached Somerville.
On the morning of Wednesday, January 26th, Christina Longo (30) of Somerville, was getting ready to drop her dog at daycare and head to work when she noticed her car, which she had parked around the corner from her home, was gone.
After calling the tow company and the non-emergency police line, Longo did not find any record of a tow. Police recommended she visit the station to file a report for a stolen car. Before leaving the station, an officer informed Longo of a recent TikTok trend, and conjectured it may have been the motivation behind the theft.
Longo returned home, made a TikTok account, and quickly found an account that had shared a video of her car. “I know it was my car because it had a distinctive sticker on the back, which they did not fully remove.”
Longo said the police have not assigned a detective to the case in light of short-staffing issues. In the meantime, Longo printed out 100 flyers warning residents about the car theft trend, and displayed them on Kia (and Hyundai) cars around her neighborhood.
On a call Wednesday, Captain Jeff DiGregorio of the Somerville Police Department shared that in the last month, 4 out of 16 reported-stolen vehicles were Kias. Over the last two months, the department has processed 27 reports of stolen vehicles, 7 of which were Kias, 6 were Hyundais. Captain DiGregorio said these numbers “are a little higher than usual,” according to their crime analytics.
Captain DiGregorio has recommended that Kia or Hyundai owners with a turn-key ignition buy a steering wheel lock to deter thieves.
If you have any further information on this event, or have been involved in a recent car theft, please reach out.
Car theft victim Christina Longo posted this flyer in hopes of thwarting future thefts.
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The Somerville police have their hands tied up with this administration. There is no active policing in Somerville.
If the SPD spent more time on crimes and less on traffic details we might see this be addressed in a quicker fashion. The Mayor gave more money to the SPD in this years budget, so no excuse.
This happened to my neighbor across the street, and i got it on video. The whole thing took no more than 30 seconds. The car door had been left unlocked, the thief, got in the car and was gone all in under a minute. The 14 yo child who stole the car who was caught, outside of Somerville and the car was returned to the owner.
I’m not usually one to go out of my way to defend the SPD but, I don’t think there was much the SPD could have done to stop this – they could have been sitting on my porch, and saw a young man get in a car, and 30 seconds later drive away and been none the wiser that the car was being stolen.
The issue really belongs to the manufacture who cut corners to save $$ and on us (the community) to make sure that we are providing the right kind of opportunities for young people.