Gary Hosna is a lifelong resident of the Shaw neighborhood who keeps a close eye on the happenings of the neighborhood. He manages neighborhood groups on Facebook and Nextdoor, and he’s engaged with the police and the neighborhood improvement specialist.
Lately what he’s seeing is that thieves have been stealing vehicles using what are called On-Board Diagnostics (OBDs) tools, devices that mechanics use to physically connect to a vehicle’s electronic network but that can also be used by thieves to override a car’s immobilizer. It’s just another piece of an ongoing cat-and-mouse game—an even easier-to-use tool than the key fob relay thefts SLM wrote about last week. The thieves are also posting about it on TikTok.
Many St. Louisans first heard about immobilizers when Kia and Hyundai began manufacturing cars without them, leading to 4,500 car thefts between 2022 and 2023. The immobilizer is an electronic system that prevents the car from starting without the right key or fob—and makes hot wiring virtually impossible. Back in 2022 and 2023, the so-called Kia Boyz were making the most of their absence from two popular brands of cars. Now that thieves can no longer rely upon manufacturers skipping such anti-theft systems, they’re using mechanics’ OBD tools to get around them. An OBD tool can be bought on Amazon or any number of other places for a few hundred dollars. Turning them into theft devices requires some after-purchase customization, but there are guides online that will walk you through that if you know where to look, Hosna says…