Cars made by the two companies have become targets of a viral social media trend after a TikTok video demonstrated how to steal the vehicles.
Capretta explained the car went missing while she was staying at a friend’s apartment in Cleveland. She and her boyfriend briefly left to get ice cream and returned to find the car gone.Capretta’s father found the vehicle in the Cleveland impound lot several days later with significant damage. “There was a USB, that’s not mine, that was under my steering wheel when I found it. So I’m like, ‘That makes perfect sense,’” she said.
The firm, along with northeast Ohio-based Payne Law LLC recently filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of Ohio against Kia and Hyundai. The attorneys said more than 500 Ohioans who own or lease the vehicles have signed on so far. The lawsuit calls the cars manufactured without immobilizers “defective vehicles” and cite several Ohio laws that could entitle Ohio residents who own and lease the vehicles for triple compensation.