Kansas City woman shares her KIA horror story

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - They say bad things come in threes, but they just keep coming for Maranda Orth.

Orth had a KIA. In fact, she’s had two of them. Two years ago, it got around social media that certain KIA and Hyundai models are easy to steal, which led the cars to become a target for thieves.

Orth’s first KIA was a 2012 model that was broken into multiple times. She was concerned about getting another KIA, but it was passed on to her from her mother.

When Orth tried to get comprehensive insurance she was denied.

“It just makes me wonder, like, what am I even paying for insurance then?’ asked Orth. “If I get in a wreck, that’s when I’m covered. But if I’m out of a vehicle, like, that’s when I’m not covered.”

Orth tried to protect her vehicle. She parked under street lights and in gated areas and put a steering wheel lock on it, but it didn’t help.

Her mom thought helping Orth upgrade to a 2018 model would solve her problem.

“I felt like I was cursed with another KIA when my mom gave me the next one,” said Orth. “But all I had to do was just smile and be happy that I was given a vehicle.”

Orth didn’t even get her new car registered in Missouri before it was stolen.

“Like I had the Missouri plates in the car, like ready to put on it as a reminder the next day, and then the next day I had no car,” said Orth.

This time, the thieves went all out. The vehicle was dumped into the Penn Valley Lake near the iconic Scout statue that overlooks downtown.

“They just joy-rode that thing around and then just submerged in a lake to try to hide the evidence, I guess,” said Orth. “Honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t just dump it in the river.”

It was pulled from the lake and taken to a city tow lot.

“(It) smells like seaweed, like a mossy city park pond,” said Orth.

Orth said she is now out of a vehicle and relying on friends for rides.

And the final hit in this sad saga—the city charged her hundreds of dollars for the tow and release of the stolen vehicle.

A friend has set up a GoFundMe account to help.

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