12 and 13 Year Olds Stealing Cars with USB Cords
Two Kids, a Screwdriver,
and 11 Stolen Cars
Car theft usually ends the same way for the owner: a police report, an insurance claim, and a long wait with no real information. A recent case out of Glendale, Arizona shows just how low the barrier to stealing a vehicle has gotten, and why a hidden tracker is becoming standard advice for anyone driving a commonly targeted model.
The Theft
Between July and August 2026, a string of vehicles disappeared from the area around 67th Avenue and Maryland in Glendale. Every one of them was a Kia or a Hyundai. Glendale police put the count at at least eight vehicles, with reporting elsewhere citing as many as 11.
The suspects: two boys, ages 12 and 13. Neither is old enough to hold a learner’s permit.
Police got their first lead in July, when a tip came in about two juveniles driving an Optima that, as one officer put it, didn’t sound right. Patrol officers ran it. Stolen.
How a Tracker Might Have Changed This Story
Erik Seweingyawa, a master mechanic at Gemba Automotive in Phoenix, laid out the practical checklist for FOX 10:
- Get the software updated. If your vehicle is eligible for the manufacturer’s anti-theft update, take the 30 minutes.
- Move to a key fob. Replacing a traditional key setup closes the most commonly exploited gap.
- Add cameras and a tracker. Layered security beats a single point of failure.
- Hide the tracker properly. His specific advice: put it somewhere the thief can’t see it and only you know to look. That way, if the vehicle is taken, you can hand police a live location instead of a description.
That last point is the one worth sitting with. Everything else on the list is about making your vehicle a harder target. A tracker is about what happens after, when the car is already gone and the only question left is whether anyone knows where it went.
The Takeaway
The Glendale case had an unusual ending. A parent made a hard phone call, neighbors paid attention, and police put a drone up. Most theft cases don’t come with that combination.
What most owners get instead is a gap between “my vehicle is missing” and “someone found it,” and that gap is where vehicles disappear for good. A hidden GPS tracker closes it. It won’t stop a screwdriver, but it turns a stolen vehicle into one that reports its own location the moment it starts moving.
If you’re driving a model that shows up on theft lists, the time to install one is before you need it.
Want to try it out?
See our platform and trackers in action by checking out our live demo below.