We have received some phone calls from concerned residents about the recent Hyundai & Kia TikTok trend. If you own either of these vehicles, we recommend you stop by the police department Monday thru Friday between the hours of 8am - 4pm to obtain a FREE wheel lock provided directly from Hyundai and Kia. These are first come first serve.

Please see the below media statement provided by Hyundai to check which models are affected.

Media Statement (Updated 2/14/2023):

Hyundai Motor America has introduced a free anti-theft software upgrade to prevent the vehicles from starting during a method of theft popularized on TikTok and other social media channels. The software upgrade will modify certain vehicle control modules on Hyundai vehicles equipped with standard “turn-key-to-start” ignition systems. As a result, locking the doors with the key fob will set the factory alarm and activate an “ignition kill” feature so the vehicles cannot be started when subjected to the popularized theft mode.

This software upgrade launched as a service campaign for almost 4 million vehicles with the upgrade rolling out first to more than 1 million model year 2017-2020 Elantra, 2015-2019 Sonata and 2020-2021 Venue vehicles. The software upgrade is scheduled to be available for the remaining eligible affected vehicles by June 2023. Hyundai is notifying customers about the anti-theft service campaign through multiple points of contact (e.g., mail, email, outbound phone contact and a dedicated website) with instructions to bring their vehicle to the nearest Hyundai dealership to have the free software installed.

More information is available at www.hyundaiantitheft.com, where customers can input their vehicle’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to find out when it is eligible for the software upgrade.

Media Press Statement: https://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/3768