Kansas City man's car stolen three times in 2023: 'It just feels like an epidemic'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As we wind down another year, it's been an especially difficult one for Daniel Moreno.

Not only did he lose his mother to ALS, but his business also faced many ups and downs. His 2013 Hyundai Elantra was also stolen on three separate occasions.

"They removed the passenger seat," Moreno said. "They also removed the driver's seat. As you can see, this driver's seat that they put there doesn't belong. It's beige – mine is dark grey."

Photos on his cellphone are all that Moreno has left of his car, which is now unrecognizable to him.

"The window's gone. You can see the whole engine for the door is gone. There's graffiti on the dashboard. Even the steering wheel got a little drawing of Deadpool," he said.

Moreno tells FOX4 that his 2013 Hyundai Elantra was first stolen in February while living at a complex in the Crossroads district. He moved soon after to a different complex downtown, but someone stole it a second time in October and then a third time in December.

The first two thefts saw only a broken window and a damaged ignition, so in October he decided to put a steering wheel lock in place.

"I thought, 'This is going to deter them. There's no way they can take it,'" he said.

But it didn't work.

"The officer on the phone told me, 'Oh, [the thieves are] pretty creative. They find ways.' He said it pretty nonchalantly," Moreno said.

That resulted in a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper finding it abandoned a few miles away on the city's east side near a homeless camp more than a week later.

"I’m sure people were sleeping inside of it," Moreno added.

The trooper had it towed to a lot more than 30 minutes away in Lee's Summit. At first, Moreno was told it would cost $645 to get it out of the lot, but after explaining that he only had liability insurance and not full coverage, he was offered a discount of $405.

A steep price he thought, but he considered paying it until he saw the state of his vehicle.

"It wasn't drivable, and it was destroyed inside," he said.

So, Moreno said the tow lot gave him two options: pay up or surrender the title. He chose the latter.

“It just feels like an epidemic, and it doesn’t feel the police care much about it. It's frustrating to know that these people are getting away with all this and affecting others just because they can and because they know there’s no consequences," he said.

New data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows Missouri, especially Kansas City, is a hot spot for car thefts.

While Missouri ranks 7th out of all states and D.C. for the most car thefts, Kansas City ranks 10th for metropolitan areas behind much larger cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Denver. In fact, Missouri and Kansas City were the only areas in the Midwest to be in the top 10.

What's more, Missouri had 13,374 cars stolen in the first half of 2023, compared to 29,345 for all of 2022. Hyundai Elantra's are also one of the cars thieves seem to target more than others, which is what Moreno drove. 

"I'm pretty traumatized by now," he said.

His friends and family are helping raise money for a new car after he wrote about his experience on a blog post. He's hopeful that the new car he eventually buys stays put in the night.