Democrat-controlled, crime-infested St. Louis is reportedly planning to sue Hyundai and Kia in response to the wave of car thefts in the city.
The premise of a potential finger-pointing lawsuit is the existence of an alleged defect in models older than 2021 that makes the job easier for automobile bandits.
In August, the city counselor’s office, apparently with the approval of Mayor Tishaura Jones and Director of Public Safety Dan Isom, sent a letter to the automakers calling upon them “to mitigate the public nuisance” otherwise St. Louis would consider legal action, Fox2 Now reported at the time.
“[W]th this letter, the city demands that Kia and Hyundai mitigate the defective conditions providing thieves – including teenagers as young as 13 – the instrumentalities by which they are destroying property, endangering city drivers and themselves, and, in some cases, committing violent felonies,” City Counselor Sheena Hamilton wrote, in part.
The brands have common ownership but operate independently.
“Thefts of Kias and Hyundais have skyrocketed across the country in recent months, as a TikTok challenge using the hashtag ‘Kia Boys’ grew in popularity. The social media trend challenged people to steal certain models of Kias and Hyundais made between 2010-2021 that are not equipped with an electric anti-theft security device called an immobilizer. The cars can be stolen with just a USB cable and a screwdriver, according to the social media trend,” Fox Business explained.
In August, car thieves stole about 23 Hyundai and Kia vehicles each day in the city, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
New Orleans replaces St. Louis as murder capital of the US; Democrat rule ravages the Big Easy https://t.co/YbotKRvFJS pic.twitter.com/D2HEKhAwgC
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) September 17, 2022
Eric Schmitt, the state’s GOP attorney general who is running for U.S. Senate, previously implied that hauling the car makers into court is not the answer because it addresses a symptom rather than the underlying problem.
“St. Louis has a violent crime problem. What’s causing crime in the city? The Mayor’s war against the police? The prosecutor letting criminals run wild? Evidently city ‘leaders’ think it’s…the cars. Yes—car manufacturers are to blame not criminals. You can’t make this stuff up.”
Other critics have compared this approach to attempts by liberals to sue gun manufacturers rather than prosecute gun criminals.
St. Louis has a violent crime problem. What’s causing crime in the city? The Mayor’s war against the police? The prosecutor letting criminals run wild?
Evidently city “leaders” think it’s….the cars. Yes—car manufacturers are to blame not criminals
You can’t make this stuff up pic.twitter.com/KKc51Y7WiG
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) August 30, 2022
A Hyundai spokesperson previously told Fox News that “Immobilizers became standard on all vehicles produced after Nov. 1, 2021,” and that all of the company’s cars otherwise “meet or exceed Federal Motor Safety Standards.”
A Kia rep similarly noted that “All 2022 models and trims have an immobilizer applied either at the beginning of the year or as a running change, and all Kia vehicles meet or exceed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.”
In addition, “Kia America continues to work closely with local law enforcement in affected areas to provide steering wheel lock devices at no cost to concerned owners of steel key operated Kia vehicles not originally equipped with an immobilizer.”
Watch a report aired by Fox 2:
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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