‘It’s unreal’: What recent vehicle thefts at the Tacoma Mall reveal about a broader problem
When six vehicles were stolen outside the Tacoma Mall on a single day last week, they added to a growing number of cases of motor vehicle theft at the shopping center and reinforced how prevalent it’s become for Kias and Hyundais to be swiped.
Since 2018, there have been nearly 400 motor vehicle thefts reported in the 4500 block of South Steele Street, where the Tacoma Mall is located, according to a News Tribune analysis of city of Tacoma data. This year, as of Oct. 1, there have been 133 thefts reported — already the highest total in any year dating back to 2018.
From 2018 (33) to 2021 (75), the number of reported motor vehicle thefts on the mall’s block hovered in the double digits before breaking the three-digit threshold last year to reach 120, according to the analysis.
The data represents the number of automobiles reported stolen and not the number of reports or individuals involved, according to the city. Reported crime was attributed to the nearest 100 block where it occurred.
In a statement attributed to the Tacoma Mall, the mall said it maintains a “robust” security program and works closely with authorities.
“The safety and security of our shoppers, retailers and employees is our highest priority,” the statement said. “Among other efforts, our program includes several security towers and camera towers in the parking lots positioned in key locations. Combined with our external CCTV cameras, this provides extensive coverage of our parking areas. In addition, our parking areas (are) patrolled 24 hours a day.”
Sgt. Jeff Carroll, who supervises detectives on the Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force, said in an interview that the five-year trend essentially mirrors what officials are seeing more broadly in Pierce County. In 2018, there was an average of 10 stolen vehicles per day countywide, he said. That figure increased to 27 last year, although it’s ticked down slightly to 24 through August of this year.
“Most are occurring in the larger, more dense shopping centers and apartment complexes,” he said, adding that thieves were targeting areas where vehicles were plentiful. “They’re going to go to places that have lots of choices.”
Lately, those choices have been pretty clear and narrow.
When a half-dozen vehicles were stolen from the mall on Sept. 24, each was a Kia or Hyundai, as were the vehicles in three attempted thefts that day, the Tacoma Police Department said.
Social media videos have taught users how to steal those vehicles, which Carroll said unfortunately was easy to do, leading to the formation of loose groups — largely juveniles — driving the increase in those vehicle thefts. Kia and Hyundai vehicles, accounting for different models and years, composed all of the top-10 most stolen vehicles in Tacoma and unincorporated Pierce County between January and August, Carroll said.
In Seattle, eight of the top-10 most stolen vehicles during the same period were also either Kias or Hyundais. But statewide, neither vehicle appeared on the top-10 list.
Carroll said he believed that socioeconomic factors in urban areas played a factor in the discrepancy as well as the likelihood that there were more of those vehicle types in urban than rural regions.
“It’s unreal, the numbers that are coming out,” he said.
It’s also been much more difficult to build cases against the suspected perpetrators who have been inspired by social media because there’s many of them, according to Carroll. He estimated there were probably more than 100 people — mostly “kids” — engaging in the “Kia Boyz” social media trend in Pierce County.
Carroll pointed to other factors that he said presented challenges: a 2021 state law restricted law enforcement from interviewing juveniles without attorney approval; young people aren’t being held in juvenile detention for stolen vehicle possession; and a wave of law enforcement officers have left the profession.
Add to that the social media challenge’s arrival in the past year or two, and “it just all kind of blew up on us,” he said.
To protect themselves from motor vehicle thefts, authorities recommend people lock their car, don’t leave it running unattended, remove or hide valuables, park in well-lit areas, leave a GPS tracker in their vehicle and use alarms, kill switches or steering wheel locks.
The Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force has given out 2,500 steering wheel locks to Kia and Hyundai drivers, according to Carroll, who suggested that motorists “really just (do) as much as you can to make your car less enticing than the car next to it.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
