Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As car thefts continue to be a prevalent issue in the City of Buffalo and surrounding areas, especially thefts as a result of "The Kia Challenge," community activists are holding an informational, call to action meeting this Saturday to provide car theft victims with useful data and resources and educate the community on what could result if solutions aren't implemented.
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Event organizer Paula Andrea says what originally started as a Facebook page for people to share and increase awareness to the car thefts in the area, has now resulted in a collection of data, shared testimony and growing concerns that she believes must be addressed.
"We have learned that there are some deep-rooted issues that are not addressed, that need much attention. The purpose of this meeting is to share the information research and resources that we have discovered, that we believe could help to not only address the problem or this situation with the increase of stolen vehicles, but the much larger deep-rooted issues associated with that. We want solutions, we don't want to keep throwing money at the problem. We want to address solutions to helping communities and families and what they need. This meeting is just an introduction to a conversation of much larger issues and layers to make our community what we want it to be."
Andrea points out that Western New York is one of the leading regions facing this problem. The community wants answers as to why that is. As reported by Spectrum News, there have been nearly 1,500 Kias and Hyundai cars stolen in the City of Buffalo between Jan. 2023 and June 2023. The organizers are calling out our elected officials like Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Byron Brown to hopefully address solutions that go beyond suing the manufacturers.
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Andrea and her fellow organizers created a website designed to report Kia thefts and report found Kias in the Western New York region. This website is comprised of useful information and resources in the event your vehicle goes missing: wny.kiatracker.com.
"Part of the webpage also is information and data that we have collected through FOIL requests," says Andrea. "The Freedom of Information Law that we are collecting from the various police departments, in terms of the cars and where they've been stolen, from where they had been discovered, the conditions under which they had been stolen, because again, stealing cars is not new. This is a unique issue. But also educating people in terms of if you don't own a Kia or Hyundai, why might your car be stolen?"
The meeting is to be held in the auditorium at the Frank E. Merriweather Library on Saturday, Aug. 26 on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo. Doors will be opening at 4 p.m.
"We are bringing people in and we are talking about what we have learned from the forms that people have filled out, from the research, the national data, the local data that we have acquired. We are going to try and explain some of the ways that people can support each other and if you're a victim, some of the resources and ways that you can get help yourself."
