Car theft on TikTok: social media account showing alleged crimes surfaces

A TikTok account showing people stealing cars and driving recklessly in Whangarei has surfaced.

The social media account, with the username edubs.stole.my.car, posts videos showing cars with broken windows and broken ignitions.

The account’s most popular video has the camera pointed out the rear window as she speeds down Kioreroa Rd with a police car in tow. The car then turns onto Port Rd, driving dangerously on the wrong side of the road and down the trail.

They also released what appears to be an alleged confession to a theft. The video shows a news photo of the robbery attached to a video showing a treasure trove of alcohol and cigarettes.

A police spokesperson said they had no knowledge of the account.

“We are disappointed to see these types of dangerous acts as portrayed in this video for the sake of a social media trend and ask that this not be repeated.”

The videos are still active on the account.

Recently, police said social media sites like TikTok have become a motivating factor behind rising youth crime.

Police Minister Chris Hipkins said “the desire for videos made for TikTok” and the quest for notoriety in the media played a major role in the wave of ram raids by young people.

Hipkins made the comment during a select committee appearance alongside Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, saying media coverage of the ram raids played a role and some were “just looking for notoriety”.

Hipkins told the media that police informed him that social media played a significant role in the ram raids.

“The desire for videos made for TikTok, so these young people are filming their offense, they put it on TikTok, they want people to see it. I recognize that there is a public interest in people wanting to know what is going on. happening but to some extent that also feeds into the notoriety challenge. It’s one of those unsolvable problems. There isn’t necessarily a solution to that.

Youth worker Hadleigh Pouesi spoke to TVNZ in April this year about this trend, saying he agreed that social media was playing a huge role in encouraging the crime wave as everything what young people lived for – social interactions, sports, arts and music programs – were deemed non-essential by the pandemic.

“Your social life [now] belongs to your phone. Your affirmation belongs to your phone. What are you going to do to get that affirmation?” he said.

“They don’t have that sense of belonging elsewhere; they don’t have that sense of community, so they search their phones, they search the @s, they search the likes and comments.”