‘Kia Boyz’ Prove Tim Michels Right on Crime

Caroline Downey has an excellent write-up about the attempted carjacking that took place just behind the cameramen setting up for Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels’s press conference in Milwaukee.

Caroline writes:

As Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial nominee Tim Michels was about to give a press conference in Milwaukee on Thursday, a man broke into and attempted to steal a car across the street.

News crews were setting up in preparation for Michels’s 10 a.m. briefing Thursday, where he received an endorsement from the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Association, when a black SUV pulled alongside a white Kia sedan, according to surveillance video obtained by FOX6 News Milwaukee. A man climbed out and smashed the window of the adjacent vehicle and appeared to attempt to steal it. A brick was found in the passenger’s seat of the Kia later on, Fox 6 reported.

The man jumped through the window of the car headfirst, turned the engine on, as well as the windshield wipers, and backed the car up until it stopped moving. About a minute and a half later, the black SUV circled back. The man casually got out of the Kia and walked to the SUV, fleeing the area, the video shows. Michels told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday night that criminals, from his observations, tend to target Kias because it’s “easy to hot-wire them.”

But it wasn’t just any car: It was a rental from the FOX News crew. One can almost hear the conspiracies slopping around in the heads of the delusional. 

Surprised by how new the vehicle was, and how brazen the attempt to steal it, I did some digging. I found that Hyundais and Kias — sister car brands — accounted for two-thirds of vehicles stolen in Milwaukee in 2021, typically by joyriders under the age of 18. According to local reporter Jeramey Jannene, these cars are notoriously easy to steal, and a subculture of thieves called “Kia Boyz” has developed around this activity. 

Jannene writes:

Rear windows in the vehicles can be broken as they are not connected to the alarm system. More sophisticated techniques involve prying out the window. Once inside the vehicle the steering column plastic panel can be removed with a screwdriver and the vehicle can be started by using a USB cable to turn over an exposed ignition. Vehicles can be stolen in a couple of minutes.

Michels wasted no time in making a meal of the situation, given how often he has (correctly) noted the prevalence of crime in Wisconsin, particularly Milwaukee, under Tony Evers’s watch. Michels’s team posted a video to Twitter after the interview had concluded.

As Michels makes gains among likely voters in the polls, this was the last thing Evers needed before the two gubernatorial candidates’ debate tonight, Friday, October 14.