BILLINGS — Multiple vehicles were either broken into or stolen on Billings West End over the past week, and police confirmed they responded to several reports of vandalism and theft. Many of the targeted vehicles were Kias and Hyundais, according to residents.
"My driver's side door was just wide open, like lights on in the car and everything, and there was just glass all over my backseat. They smashed in my rear window," said Ariana Ledbetter, who discovered the vandalism Tuesday morning when leaving for work.
Watch Billings residents talk about what they experienced:
The thieves had one clear goal — to steal her car. They removed the lower part of her steering wheel, apparently with a screwdriver, and attempted to start the vehicle with a USB cable. Fortunately for Ledbetter, the theft attempt failed because she had recently installed an anti-theft system.
"The point wasn't to steal anything or else they would have taken stuff out of my car. It was just to see, like, how many cars they could break into in a night," Ledbetter said.
She wasn't alone. When police arrived to investigate, an officer told her she was the 10th victim that morning.
"We had, like, a cop show up and an investigator and everything. And they kind of like ran me down of, hey, you were the 10th person this morning already," Letbetter said. "The investigator told me it's like a trend on TikTok to do this to people's cars."
That trend is known as the "Kia Boys" — a social media phenomenon that began in 2021 where thieves, often teenagers, use a simple, low-tech method involving a USB cable to steal Hyundai and Kia vehicles.
Casey Veatch experienced a similar shock when he discovered his car missing from his driveway Tuesday morning.
“It was about six in the morning, and suddenly our car wasn't in the driveway where we left it the night before," Veatch said. "Went back inside and talked to my wife, and I'm like, 'I'm not crazy. Our car was there last night.' And she's like, 'Yep' I'm like, 'Well, it's not there now.'"
Veatch said police eventually found the vehicle at a Kohls, but it had sustained significant damage.
"The back window had been broken," Veatch said. "They popped the window, broke up the steering column, did a whole bunch of stuff there."
It remains unclear whether these crimes have any connection to the Kia Boys trend.
Billings police told MTN that vehicles of multiple makes and models were vandalized, and a 13-year-old was arrested in connection to at least two of the incidents. Police did not identify the suspect.
"Kids see these videos on the reels and what not, and they can just get in, and this code they download off the internet or hack or whatever it is, and they just get in and go," Veatch said.
