LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Crooks continue to target Kia vehicles in Northeast Ohio.
The Lakewood Police Department is currently looking for individuals connected with a stolen Kia after they fled from the vehicle in the middle of a chase by officers.
Administrative Captain Gary Stone told 3News a stolen Kia with no lights on was driving in Lakewood in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Once a Lakewood PD officer tried to pull it over, the vehicle did not stop and a pursuit began.
Stone said five people were in the vehicle as officers chased it through Lakewood, Rocky River, and then into Westlake. The chase became hectic.
"The vehicle spun out of control and struck an officer's police car in the area of Columbia and Center Ridge," Stone explained. "One or two occupants got out of the vehicle and ran on foot. At that point, the vehicle started up again."
Stone says assisting officers were able to eventually stop the vehicle and arrest three juveniles. They continue to look for the others that ran away.
"The Kia seems to be a vehicle that is very amenable to being stolen," Stone added. "I'm concerned about the amount of juveniles that are being involved in these types of crimes."
Lakewood police are still investigating how the vehicle was stolen, but believe it was taken out of Cleveland. They report six Kias have been stolen in their city so far this year, and last year there were 35.
3News does not know how all the various Kias were stolen, but the tactics vary. While there are many creative methods car thieves use to steal vehicles, cybersecurity experts do want drivers to beware of a device thieves are using called a signal interceptor, which captures your key fob's signal so the thief can use it to break into your car.
"They're using the device to record the unlock signal of a car, and then they're replaying that and being able to get into the car without setting off the alarm," expert Paul Sems of the Northeast Ohio cybersecurity consulting firm TrustedSec said. "So basically what they're trying to do is clone the key fob."
We asked him if there's any defense against this.
"There really isn't a real defense, because you're not able to really change the key fob or how the car is programmed," Sems answered. "So really, just be aware of your surroundings. You could avoid using the key fob. Most people won't do that and just use the manual key, but really, there's not a strong defense."
TrustedSec tells us newer vehicles are better protected against these devices because they have more sophisticated algorithms in their unlock systems that prevent these types of attacks.