SPRINGVILLE, Utah — For the second time in as many weeks, several Springville residents woke up to find their cars burglarized.
This time, police say they targeted Kia brand vehicles in the area of 100 south and 300 west, attempting to hot-wire and drive off with the cars.
“If we don’t lock our doors, our cars get broken into,” said Tess Johnson, who lives in the area.
Johnson feels it’s a troubling trend that perpetuates itself. Johnson says she’s lived on 100 South her whole life. In recent years, her family’s cars have been burglarized four or five different times.
“It's terrifying when you get into your own car and then find that someone else has been in it,” Johnson said. “I think that just kind of shakes you up.”
To make it more unnerving, her home is right across the street from the police station.
“They’ll always say the same thing - ‘That’s bold that someone would do it right across the street,’” said Johnson, noting she’s reported those incidents.
While Johnson avoided the same fate this time, that boldness has reared its ugly head again Friday morning.
“Three of the cars we found had smashed-in glass, so pretty aggressive, and we were noticing nothing was missing from the vehicles,” said Master Officer Whitney Van Pelt with Springville Police. “I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard from people on Facebook that it’s a TikTok trend.”
The same trend which struck Salt Lake City in late 2024, when officers said suspects were basing their crimes off what they’d seen on social media.
Van Pelt says they found some burglary tools in the area and they’re hoping to pull fingerprints off them.
But this is now the second Springville neighborhood to have been targeted in a 10-day span. Security camera video we obtained from a resident in the Brookside area last week shows two people trying doors to find unlocked cars and steal what’s inside.
“We had a couple firearms taken, which is scary, cash, cards,” Van Pelt said.
As their investigations continue, Van Pelt is urging people to lock their car doors and if you can’t take your car into a garage - take all your valuables with you.
“I don’t even think about locking my car at all,” said Ember Lee, another resident.
Although she didn’t have a Kia, Ember Lee just found out today that she had a close call.
“That’s so crazy that happened too, cause right before I get out of my car, I’m like, ‘Should I lock it? Nah, I live right next to the police station,’” Lee said.
She says learning about this is enough to change her habits.
“For sure, I’m going to lock my doors now because you can never be too careful,” said Lee.
Springville Police say it will have extra patrollers out on graveyard shifts in an effort to keep the community safe.
While they search for leads in both of these cases, they do not have any video evidence of last night’s burglaries.
If you live in the area of 100 South and 300 West, check your security cameras to see if it may have captured anything.
