‘It looked like an Avengers movie’: Grinning teens steal man’s car, turn it into a wrecking ball

When Kelley moved from Phoenix to Seattle six months ago, he was excited for the city’s green landscapes, four seasons, and neighborhood charm. Instead, he was greeted with a nightmare that has left him shaken, carless, and questioning his safety in a city known more for rising crime than accountability.

Kelley shared his story exclusively on The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red 770 AM, explaining how his sense of security was destroyed in a matter of minutes.

“I get woken up at 3:30 by a Seattle number,” Kelley recalled. “It popped up a voicemail saying, ‘Seattle Police, we need you to call this back ASAP.’ … The officer says, ‘You drive a 2016 Kia Soul, blue in color?’ And I’m tripping out. He’s like, ‘Well, we just found it. It’s on the top. It’s got flipped over.'”

That car theft was only the beginning of what he calls a “reign of terror” committed by a group of teens, likely influenced by a TikTok-fueled crime wave that teaches people how to steal Kia and Hyundai vehicles.

A stolen car totaled

Kelley’s vehicle wasn’t just stolen—it was turned into a wrecking ball.

“They stole my vehicle, took it two blocks over, put it in drive, and I assume no one was in the car when the police found it. They pushed it down a hill, crashed into two other vehicles and then flipped on the side and on the top. It looked like an Avenger movie,” he told Rantz.

The suspects, believed to be juveniles, weren’t content with just the destruction of his car. Surveillance video from a nearby Tesla caught one of them bashing in the Tesla’s windshield for fun. “We have this young, you know, 16 to 18-year-old male smiling, grinning ear to ear that he just stole a Kia but also that he’s smashing up this Tesla’s windshield,” Kelley said.

Over the following days, the group allegedly committed more break-ins, home invasions, and vehicle thefts in the Magnolia neighborhood, Kelley said. He’s been tracking the group’s chaos via neighborhood crime apps. Yet two weeks later, no arrests have been made.

What comes next?

At first, Kelley says the Seattle Police Department was responsive. But with Seattle Police understaffed and property crime deprioritized, updates have dried up.

“They were very gung ho,” he explained of the police initially. “Even now, I’ve been trying to follow up, I haven’t really got anywhere. … I’m taking it as a loss.”

For Kelley, who came to Seattle full of optimism, he’s appreciative of the work the Seattle Police Department will put into the crime wave, but knows with so few staff, they will be overwhelmed. Still, the crime wave feels personal.

“When I moved here, I was so gung ho. We lived in a nice neighborhood near a park. There were even some nights we’d leave windows open because it was so beautiful. And now it’s stripped that sense of security away,” he said. “That’s the scary part, because if it was a home invasion, if they woke us up in the middle of the night, what could have happened?”

A financial and emotional blow

To make matters worse, Kelley’s insurance won’t cover the total loss. “Basically every panel, every window, every airbag deployed, everything was smashed. … My insurance did not completely cover it, so basically I took a total loss. I get no compensation for it,” he said.

Kelley has turned to his community for help, launching a GoFundMe page to raise money for a replacement vehicle.

“I’ve never gone without a vehicle since I was 14. I always took that as a prideful thing,” he explained. “I don’t want to be down too long, so I’ve been blessed with friends and family donating to my GoFundMe.”

Kelley hopes his ordeal will serve as a wake-up call. “No matter how safe, no matter how prepared you could be, these criminals don’t care in the end,” he said. “And that’s what the scary part is.”

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