Car thieves use mechanics’ tools to target vehicles—and brag about it on TikTok

Gary Hosna is a lifelong resident of the Shaw neighborhood who keeps a close eye on the happenings of the neighborhood. He manages neighborhood groups on Facebook and Nextdoor, and he’s engaged with the police and the neighborhood improvement specialist.

Lately what he’s seeing is that thieves have been stealing vehicles using what are called On-Board Diagnostics (OBDs) tools, devices that mechanics use to physically connect to a vehicle’s electronic network but that can also be used by thieves to override a car’s immobilizer. It’s just another piece of an ongoing cat-and-mouse game—an even easier-to-use tool than the key fob relay thefts SLM wrote about last week. The thieves are also posting about it on TikTok.

Many St. Louisans first heard about immobilizers when Kia and Hyundai began manufacturing cars without them, leading to 4,500 car thefts between 2022 and 2023. The immobilizer is an electronic system that prevents the car from starting without the right key or fob—and makes hot wiring virtually impossible. Back in 2022 and 2023, the so-called Kia Boyz were making the most of their absence from two popular brands of cars. Now that thieves can no longer rely upon manufacturers skipping such anti-theft systems, they’re using mechanics’ OBD tools to get around them. An OBD tool can be bought on Amazon or any number of other places for a few hundred dollars. Turning them into theft devices requires some after-purchase customization, but there are guides online that will walk you through that if you know where to look, Hosna says. 

Shaw is overall a relatively low-crime neighborhood, with violent crime either rare or nonexistent over the past several years, according to police data. Police data, however, shows that auto thefts are up 38 percent this year compared to the same time last year. As of the end of last month, the neighborhood had seen 36 auto thefts, 12 more than over the same timeframe in 2025.

Hosna says he’s been able to sleuth out the use of OBD tools because of two things.The first is that he’s hearing from neighbors who have noticed a very short window between cars being broken into and the thieves, who don’t have the actual keys, taking off. One neighbor, Sean Spencer, says that when his car was stolen this summer, he awoke to his car alarm going off. He ran to his second floor window. Within 20 seconds, the thieves had the car started, the alarm off, and were driving down the street. Spencer has been in Shaw more than 20 years; he helped start the Flora Place CID in part because at the time there were so many car thefts. Things have gotten markedly better, he says, “but this one kind of shook me.”

The second reason that Hosna feels certain thieves are using OBD tools is that they post about it on TikTok.

Hosna says that a woman who had her car stolen this summer reached out to him when it first happened. He suggested she look on the Facebook group Got Stolen STL, which is something of a lost and found for stolen St. Louis cars, with posts made by victims as well as good Samaritans who come across cars that look as though they may have been abandoned by a thief.

The woman got back to Hosna to say she had found her car on social media—on the TikTok page of the person she thinks must have stolen it.

The TikTok post was of the interior of an Infiniti. Her steering wheel had a little indent on it, which was the giveaway. “You know your car when you see it,” said Hosna. 

From that video, Hosna says, he started “going down rabbit holes.” He adds, “I’m not a TikTok guy,” he says. “I said, ‘OK, let me find this guy who commented here, that guy who commented there.’ You start looking around. You’ll see where they’ve stolen a car, and then they’ll post it on there.”

One account Hosna shared with SLM shows videos of what looks a lot like car theft, with the thieves referring to themselves as “strikers” along with photos of OBD tools. There is no doubt the account is local. One post features a map of St. Louis’ streets, with text saying, “Where my strikers at.” In the comments, people talk about getting caught stealing a car in Florissant and successfully stealing one from St. Ann.

A video posted to the account features footage of a car driving at night, shot from the backseat, captioned with the text, “You had to jump out the strike and call your Uber.” This striker sets some posts to music, preferring tracks with an indie, shoegazy sound.

Why post photos and videos of the stolen cars? Hosna’s guess is that they are something like a trophy—the same way a marathoner might post a screenshot from their FItbit after a race or a music snob posts their Spotify Wrapped as a sign of their impeccable taste. 

The account’s comments feature a fair amount of car thief shop talk about OBD tools, with one person saying that the diagnostic tool made by Xhorse “is ass. Worst pad to have.” Another seems to compare Xhorse unfavorably to its competitor, Autel: “Autel like iphone xhorse like android.”

Reached for comment, an SLMPD spokesperson said that steering wheel clubs are most likely the best deterrent against all types of vehicle theft, including high-tech methods like this one.

After one car theft in Shaw, Hosna was sent video from a home surveillance camera taken shortly before the theft occurred. It shows three guys getting out of a red car and walking down the street toward where two vehicles would soon be stolen. He believes this is the same crew from the TikTok account, though he has no way to be certain.

He does, however, think they have neighborhood ties. He recently came upon the same red car, which had damage to its front bumper. He said he called the police and told them this was the car suspected of being involved in stealing vehicles from Shaw.

The cops came out and ran its plates. The car came back as not stolen.

Its plates, however, were temporary ones that expired in November 2024, which seemed to spur the officer to action. “He goes, ‘I’ll give it a ticket for that.’”