DALLAS — Car theft may be on the minds of a lot of you, specifically Kia and Hyundai owners, as those vehicles are vulnerable to being stolen.
You may have heard about the TikTok trend of people stealing those kinds of cars for joyrides, but it could happen to anyone.
Here are some steps the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles says to take if you find yourself in the unfortunate situation:
File a police report. You'll need your vehicle identification number for that, so if you don't have that saved somewhere, do that now!
Reach out to your insurance provider. Even if it's not covered by your policy, it will protect you if your car or anything inside of it is used in a crime.
If your car is being leased or financed, reach out to your bank to let them know what's going on.
Of course we hope you never have to deal with this, but it's happening more often in some areas here in North Texas.
We checked with the Plano Police Department this summer, and they reported a 15% increase in stolen vehicles from last year.
At that time, Dallas Police said the crime was up nearly 32% year-to-date.
Around that time, Richardson police reported the biggest jump – an 85% increase.
That adds up to about 121 additional stolen cars in the city from the year prior!
And what you can do to help yourself? The North Texas Auto Theft Task Force lists some basic steps to help protect your car, but here's an interesting one:
A strategy called VIN etching, where you carve that identification number into your car windows to make the sale of those parts traceable and ultimately deterring a thief from stealing the car to make a profit.
As always, if you have a traffic concern in your area, you can email us here.