900 Kia Engines Were Stolen Over 5 Years Without Anyone Noticing

It’s not every day you hear about hundreds of car engines vanishing from a factory, but that’s exactly what’s happened at a Kia plant in India. Over the past five years, as many as 900 engines are believed to have been stolen under the nose of Kia at its production facility in Andhra Pradesh. Local police now suspect that both former and current employees may be behind the elaborate theft.

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Kia is thought to have uncovered the missing engines during a year-end audit conducted in March. After identifying the discrepancies, the automaker reported the issue to local authorities, who have since opened an investigation into the theft.

As you can probably imagine, stealing an engine without being noticed isn’t exactly a casual heist, let alone nearly 1,000 of them. Police officers originally suspected the engines may have been stolen while they were in transit. However, the findings of their preliminary investigation suggest the engines were snatched from the plant itself, and records were tampered with to ensure no one found out.

A Theft Hidden in Plain Sight

Police acknowledge they don’t yet know how the engines were actually taken from the plant. It’s also unclear why engines were being targeted specifically. Stealing engines from a car factory sounds like a good plot for the next Fast and Furious film, but we suspect while Dominic Torretto and his crew would likely rely on brute force to snatch the engines, the thieves in this case may have been a little more subtle, hence why the thefts went undetected for so long.

Speaking with Economic Times in India, local police said they had formed three special teams to investigate the case, and they are currently traveling across the country to gather important information.

“Preliminary investigation shows the engines were stolen in a phased and planned manner,” local authorities said. “It is certain that some insiders are involved. We suspect that there was connivance between some former and present employees.”

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Recovering the missing engines is likely to be a challenge. Many may have surely already been sold, either to repair shops or private buyers. Some could have been installed into vehicles, while others might have made their way out of the country entirely. Tracing them now could prove nearly impossible without clear records or identification numbers.

H/T to Motor1

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