With one month left, 2023 is already the worst year for vehicle thefts in more than 15 years

On the afternoon of Oct. 2, Laura Payne walked from her South Philadelphia home to the nearby block where she parked her 2020 Honda CR-V, only to find that it was gone.

When Payne, 38, checked her phone app for the Apple AirTag GPS device she had left in the glove compartment in case of a courtesy tow, she saw that her SUV wasn’t just a few blocks away — It was in Connecticut.

Payne is one of tens of thousands of Philadelphians whose vehicles have been stolen in the city this year, the worst for vehicle thefts since at least 2006.

Automobile thefts in Philadelphia have increased more than 136% since 2006 — climbing from 8,916 stolen rides in that year to a staggering 21,111 over the last 11 months, according to Philadelphia Police Department data.

» READ MORE: What we know about Philly’s surge in vehicle thefts

Within the last 17 years, vehicle thefts reached their lowest point in 2017, with 1,501 thefts. The increase from that low point to this year’s peak is massive, with a more than 1,306% increase.

More than 94,000 automobiles have been stolen since 2006, according to the police database, and 35% of those thefts have come in 2022 and the first 11 months of this year.

In the last 17 years, vehicle thefts have only breached 9,000 twice: last year with 11,818 and this year with more than 21,000.

There were an average of 84 thefts a day in August this year. And since 2016, there were eight days in which 100 or more vehicles were stolen, all of them in July or August of this year.

Those numbers do not include thefts by gunpoint, police said.

Philadelphia Police Capt. Jason Smith, of the department’s Major Crimes Unit, declined to comment for this article but he has called the numbers “overwhelming” and pointed toward a viral social media challenge that pushes young people to steal vehicles and film it.

Other experts say changed law enforcement practices since the pandemic and increasingly tech-savvy thieves have also played a role in what has become a national epidemic of jacked vehicles.

Over the last few years, the Kia Boyz Challenge, a TikTok trend originating in Milwaukee that teaches viewers how to exploit a lack of theft protections in turnkey Kia and Hyundai vehicles and steal those vehicle with just a USB cord and a screwdriver, has gone viral across the country, said Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center For Auto Safety, a consumer protection nonprofit.

The challenge prompts viewers to steal Kias or Hyundais and then post videos of the thefts and joyrides, primarily on TikTok, said Brooks. The social media challenge has led to “leaps” each year in terms of vehicle thefts nationwide, said Brooks.

In Philadelphia, those leaps have been consistent and large.

Of the 19,589 thefts through Nov. 9, more than 61% of the vehicles stolen were either Hyundais or Kias, according to department data.

There are “groups on social media who are dedicated to outdoing each other in car thefts,” said Brooks. “It’s almost a game or competition for some of these folks.”

The Center For Auto Safety has voiced concerns about Kia and Hyundai’s responses to a national increase in thefts.

Earlier this year, Philadelphia police halted a steering wheel lock distribution program offered by Kia and Hyundai meant to combat break-ins after the spike in thefts of the vehicle brands due to the social media challenge.

After four commanding officers of four police districts requested the locks without permission from upper command staff, the department halted the program due to legal liability fears.

Until 2019, vehicle thefts across the country were “almost as low as they’d ever been,” said Brooks.

The social media challenge and reduced traffic enforcement starting during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a nationwide epidemic of vehicle theft, with rates climbing steeply in Atlanta, Chicago and dozens of other major American cities, according to Motherboard.

“It’s happening everywhere,” Brooks said.

The solutions, Brooks said, are twofold.

As vehicles are growing less and less mechanical and more and more reliant on computer technology, they are also growing more susceptible to hacking, he said.

The federal government needs to implement more robust cybersecurity and theft protection for vehicles into law to deter the rise in thefts, he said. Without it, thefts will likely continue to rise, he said.

“Because hackers aren’t going to stop getting more advanced,” he said.

In addition, traffic enforcement by municipal police departments has decreased nationwide because of understaffing and officers prioritizing more urgent calls, according to an NPR report.

The Philadelphia Police Department continues to deal with a major staffing shortage, being walloped by low recruitment numbers and a stream of retirements and resignations.

For Payne, who works in health-care administration, the experience of her SUV being stolen was disorienting and left her feeling that her privacy was violated.

The AirTag showed that her SUV traveled through North Jersey and Connecticut and had her talking to more than 10 different law enforcement agencies. Finally, the AirTag was tracked going back to a warehouse in Passaic, N.J., where officers discovered it had been taped to the back of a wholesale food delivery truck.

Her vehicle was gone for good.

With help from her insurance company, Payne was able to buy a new vehicle with extra security top of mind. She recently purchased a Nissan SUV with an internal tracking system that thieves can’t remove.

But the fears and worries still linger.

“It’s super violating, and the more I think about it, the scarier it is,” she said. “Was someone watching me because it was stolen so quickly after I parked? Was someone waiting there? Do they know who I was, did they watch me walk home. All of those questions have definitely crossed my mind.”