Brazen thieves steal Kia, ransack second vehicle in College Park
Bold thieves smash windows, steal car
Another Kia stolen here in metro Atlanta. It happened early Friday morning on Washington Road in College Park. Crooks broke into one car and drove off. They smashed the window of another as a family slept nearby. The crime was caught on camera. It’s the latest in a surge of thefts of Kias around the nation and in metro Atlanta.
COLLEGE PARK, Ga. - Crooks drive off with a family’s car and ransack another. It happened early Friday on Washington Road in College Park. The crime was caught on a home-surveillance camera. It’s the latest in a nationwide surge in Kia thefts and break-ins.
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The car owner, who wants to remain anonymous, said he was getting his children ready for school, when he looked out his bedroom window, and noticed his wife’s car wasn’t where it was supposed to be.
"I’m saying, ‘Hey. Where’s your car?’" the car owner said. "We come out and notice the vehicle is gone."
He checked on his car. "I come on the right side here and notice my window is out."
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Then the couple looked at their home-surveillance video. A crook in dark clothes, gently places a shattered car window on the ground behind this dark Kia they just broke into. The thief shimmies in through the rear passenger window. Another person, in a lighter top, walked alongside the dark Kia, and looks in.
"I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t hear a window being busted," the car owner said.
The crooks stole his wife's car and grabbed what they could from his. "My wallet was in the car along with a couple of debit cards, an ID. The steering column is also damaged."
Both cars are Kias. The number of break-ins and thefts of Kias and Hyundais is surging around the nation. Many of those cars sold in the US lack engine immobilizers, making easy targets. "It’s frustrating to know that you can’t go to sleep at night without being that what you work hard for is going to be taken away from you," the car owner said.
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The car owner wants to make other Kia owners aware of this rash of thefts. Police urge vulnerable Kia owners to use anti-theft devices on their steering wheels.