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In Tacoma, three teenage girls are accused of auto theft.

the girls, ages 15, 14, and just 12 years old, were arrested on New Year鈥檚 Day after police found them allegedly driving a stolen Kia Optima. Police tried to pull the girls over but they ditched the car and fled on foot.

“The 12-year-old is just over the age where she can even be charged with something,” Jim Fuda with Crimestoppers of Puget Sound said. “It is shocking.”

One of the girls was found in possession of a USB cable, a well-publicized tool used to start early model Kias and Hyundais.

The two older girls were taken to Pierce County juvenile detention. The 12-year-old was released to her parents.

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Earlier this week, The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) told 成人X站 Newsradio auto theft across the county is down significantly from its peak in the summer of 2023. Over a three-month period, deputies responded to more than 460 car thefts or attempted car thefts.

鈥淚鈥檇 come on to shift, on patrol and there鈥檇 be five or six stolen car reports and by the time we got those cleared up there鈥檇 be ten more,鈥� PCSD Deputy Carly Cappetto said.

However, new numbers show car theft has decreased dramatically. The department said several factors contributed to the decline.

鈥淚 would say, over the last couple of years, the ‘Kia Boys,’ most of them have been arrested, so there鈥檚 not a lot of them out there,鈥� Cappetto said.

She added those arrests were a huge turning point.

“We could actually do our job and go after them and make it harder for them to get away,” Cappetto shared.

Other factors included: public awareness and extra caution among drivers, multi-agency auto theft task forces, aggressive prosecution of teens, automakers fixing vulnerabilities in Kias and Hyundais and a change in the Pierce County Pursuit policy, which allows deputies to chase property crime suspects.

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These combined efforts brought the theft rates back down to where they were prior to the big spike.

But Cappetto said her heart goes out to the victims. Many of them couldn鈥檛 afford to pay for repairs or for the time their car spent in an impound lot.

鈥淧eople who live in apartment complexes, single moms, elderly people, people who didn鈥檛 have the funds or the resources to invest a ton of money to secure their vehicles,鈥� Cappetto said.

Contributing: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest

James Lynch is a reporter at 成人X站 Newsradio. You can read more of James鈥� stories聽here. Follow James on聽, or email him聽here.