YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Recently, First News reported on a juvenile stealing a Kia in Youngstown. It’s not the first time this has happened in the city — one lady has almost had her Kia stolen twice.
“I’ve lived here for 31 years. It’s the first time I’ve even had a claim on my insurance,” said Judy Buck of Youngstown.
Buck lives on the South Side. She shared doorbell video from early Sunday morning from her neighbor across the street. It shows Buck’s white Kia parked in her driveway and another dark blue Kia frantically driving around the street. Buck says this was the getaway car for two kids who smashed her car window, attempting to steal it.
“I heard something out there and I opened the front door and I stood in the front door and I heard this one kid go, ‘Oh, crap,'” Buck said.
Buck had a club on her steering wheel, so the kids were not able to drive her car away. But this isn’t the first time someone broke into her car this summer.
“On June 26, I went out to take the trash can back and the glass was broken,” Buck said.
Now that Buck’s car has been broken into twice, she fears that it could happen again.
“I’m not safe, that’s the sad part. We have a curfew here in the city from 11 o’clock at night for the kids to be off the street. I only have one thing to say to the mayor and the police chief, how is it working for you? Because it isn’t working for me,” Buck said.
Youngstown police have minimal information to work with on this case. Captain Jason Simon says it’s hard to catch kids in the act of stealing Kias and Hyundais, but the public’s safety is top priority when handling these cases.
“We have an epidemic problem here, nationwide and, you know, in the entire county that we need to take measures when we can,” Simon said.
Buck hopes someone will recognize the dark blue getaway Kia and lead to the suspects getting turned in.