Desperate Times: Kia Owners Post Messages on Cars to Keep the Kia Boys Away

They've started putting messages on their cars to tell the Kia Boys that their vehicles are fitted with steering wheel locks, hoping the thieves would no longer break their windows.

If you've been living under a rock for the past two years, here's a quick summary of how we ended up in this odd place. A Kia hack that went viral on TikTok showed Internet users how to start the engine of certain Kia and Hyundai models with nothing but a USB cable. The method involves getting in the car (this is the hardest part of the hack, as the lack of an immobilizer in the vulnerable models makes everything else as easy as 1-2-3), so most self-proclaimed Kia Boys don't waste any time and smash the driver's window.

The next step involves ripping off the steering wheel column cover to expose a port that allows the engine to be started without the key. A few seconds later, the thief can already drive away in your car.

A year after the TikTok hack went viral and teens started to steal cars for street cred and Internet views, Kia and Hyundai came up with a software update. The anti-theft patch prevents cars from getting stolen, and the two carmakers have repeatedly insisted that vehicles running the new software can only be started with the keys. Push buttons weren't vulnerable in the first place, but thanks to the patch, the majority of Kia and Hyundai cars exposed by the hack were no longer defenseless.

The carmakers hoped a window sticker was enough to keep the Kia Boys away. Every car where the new software update was installed also received a sticker to tell thieves that starting the engine wouldn't work with the TikTok hack. Unpatchable vehicles received a steering wheel lock and a sticker to scare away thieves.

It didn't work. The Kia Boys were only interested in Internet fame, so they often didn't even check if the car was patched. The sticker was completely ignored, and some thieves didn't even look through the window to see if a steering wheel was installed. They eventually abandoned the theft, not before breaking the driver's window and causing damage worth hundreds of dollars.

The TikTok trend puts a target on the back of every Kia and Hyundai model in the United States, whether vulnerable or not, old or new. As long as it wore these badges, they were potential targets, with thieves sometimes breaking inside without even checking if they could be stolen.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so some Kia owners even removed their Kia logos and installed other badgers from different brands. It sometimes worked, but it more often didn't, as Kia Boys, with a strong interest in cars, could still tell Kias apart from other models. They sometimes spotted their targets from a distance, approached the vehicles without checking for more information, shattered the driver's window, stepped inside, and you know the rest.

Kia owners have turned to third-party hardware to protect their cars. Many installed steering wheel locks, hoping they'd act as deterrents for the Kia Boys, while others planted AirTags to find the vehicles if they got stolen.

The hardest part of the anti-Kia Boy shield was to find a way to tell the thieves that a car was protected. If the thief knows a steering wheel lock is installed before they break the window, maybe don't break it at all. Kia's sticker didn't work, so some turned to bigger messages on their windows. "There is a club on the steering wheel," one such message, recently posted on reddit and submitted to me by our reader and Kia owner Jeremy, reads.

While the message mainly translates to "you won't be able to drive away in this car, please be kind and don't break the window," it also drives attention to the vehicle. It can probably become a challenge for experienced Kia Boys to steal this car, though I haven't heard of cases where a Kia was stolen with a steering wheel in place.

Unfortunately, such messages don't necessarily keep the Kia Boys away. Some of these teens are only interested in street cred, so they could still break a car's window for fun. Not long ago, two Kia Boys broke a car's window only to realize it was a push to start. They left their USB cable behind and walked away, not before leaving a message on the vehicle: "buy a new car."

Meanwhile, Kia's and Hyundai's software update push continues, so if you haven't patched your vehicle, check their websites for information on how to get it ASAP.