By Marc J. Elzenbeck
Imagine it’s May of 2022. You’re a 15 year-old boy in Chicago named Merritt. You’re sitting in your bedroom in front of your laptop wearing a mask all day on Zoom, pretending it’s school.
Your teacher, also in their bedroom on Zoom, sits in front of a fake digital shelf of books and is being fully paid to ride herd on your thumbnails. She’s even more bored than you are, but makes you ask for a hall pass to use the bathroom in your own house or she’ll report you absent. You’re pretty sure she’s sneaking White Claws during Social Studies, but even if they believed you, no one would care.
Then your buddy texts you a TikTok video called “The Kia Challenge.” It shows how to steal Kia and Hyundai cars using nothing more than a flat-head screwdriver and a regular USB cable. Gain entry, pry back the steering column cover, slide the USB’s end plug over the inner ignition post for a perfect fit, twist carefully to the right.
No hot-wiring required, no engine immobilizer, works on most models from 2011 to 2021. Gone in 60 seconds. You text two words back: “Tonight bro.”
The Kia Challenge started in Milwaukee, where car thefts exploded. By some reports, thefts in nearby Chicago increased 800%. You become one of the #KiaBoyz and send a video of your joy-riding to your cousin in Auburn. He in turn helps claimed car thefts in King County skyrocket to 17,959 in 2022, mostly in a frenzy during the latter half of that year.
Combined with a perfect storm of policy and pandemic, this made little Washington the third-highest state for total vehicle thefts in the entire US. How? In our state’s case, there was a special contributing factor.
Effective July 2021, the state legislature passed RCW 10.116.060, which officially limited when law enforcement officers could pursue a fleeing vehicle. Pursuits were prohibited unless there was probable cause for a violent felony, sex offense, escape, or DUI. Simple vehicle theft did not qualify, so officers had to terminate pursuits even when they observed an obviously stolen and reported vehicle.
Car thieves quickly learned that, if a police car was following them, they could simply drive away and wouldn’t be stopped for speeding. Even kids on Vashon were well aware and began engaging in some fast nightly joy-riding.
Predictably, professional thieves were also inspired to take advantage of lax policy and lowered staffing. The storm culminated during the Taylor Swift concerts in Seattle on July 22nd and 23rd of 2023, when a rave featuring drifting cars and tire smoke took over a main intersection for a night on Capitol Hill. The lone officer who initially responded had to carefully retreat when teenagers climbed onto his cruiser’s hood and roof to jump up and down on it, significantly damaging the vehicle.
Subsequently, 434,000 citizen signatures were easy to gather for Initiative 2113, which read, “This measure would remove certain restrictions on vehicular pursuits, allowing them upon conditions including an officer’s reasonable suspicion a person has violated the law and poses a threat to the safety of others.”
When the non-pursuit policy was rolled back in early 2024, the effect was immediate and has resulted in steady declines in property theft, particularly for vehicles. The vote to adopt 2113 passed 77-20 in the House and 36-13 in the Senate.
In 2024, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reported Washington that vehicle thefts dropped 32%, the most of any state, with neighboring Nevada and Oregon as other big improvers.
The decline accelerated in 2025 with Washington thefts dropping by 39%, still ranking us 9th nationally in total theft volume. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area saw a 41% reduction. While still very high nationally on a per capita basis, it’s heading in the right direction, and indicates that common sense law enforcement can effectively and quickly deter crime.
Recent WA state restrictions on Automated License Plate Readers due to privacy concerns, signed into law on March 30th, have the potential to encourage more car thefts. It’s complicated, but on balance, the law only seems like a mild enforcement negative over time. Unfortunately, the higher car insurance rates we’ve all experienced in the wake of the crime wave seem unlikely to ever go back to where they were.
For the record, Kia and Hyundai fixed their vulnerabilities in 2022. The older models are aging out, no longer the juicy targets they once were. To attract teenage thieves now, owners might have to put signs on the windows that say, “Steal Me.”
What happened to Merritt? Through enthusiastic practice and increasing rewards, Merritt became a specialist. He established organized crime contacts, supplying Chicago-area chop shops with cars on request. He built a reputation as a smart go-getter and works out of a repair shop front near O’Hare Airport. He bought a brand new Mustang and is investigating ways to hack its standard FordPass Connect app and software-controlled security features.
Once ready to defeat its anti-theft lockdown switch, Merritt wants to make some viral videos and launch the #MustangChallenge.
