Police say social media could be the driver of a spate of car thefts involving Mazdas.
More than 100 Mazda thefts have been reported to police since the beginning of the year, in Taranaki alone.
It's believed social media challenges showing users engaging in risky behaviour, such as burnouts with Mazdas, could be linked to a high number of people stealing the cars.
"I've seen it a lot on the Christchurch Facebook pages, multiple cars stolen and found and then stolen again," says former Mazda owner Lucy Parkes-Dolan.
The thirst for thieves to target Mazdas isn't new. In 2017, police in Christchurch reported 29 Mazda Demios were stolen in just two months.
Parkes-Dolan's Mazda Familia was stolen in 2019.
"It was parked outside someone's house for a couple of weeks and they contacted the police and said 'someone's car's been outside our house and no one is using it or driving it,' and they contacted us and told us it had been found."
In Taranaki, 108 Mazdas have been stolen since the start of the year. More than 30 offenders have been identified by police - most of them young people aged between 13 and 20.
Parkes-Dolan isn't sure why Mazdas are targeted but says she's "heard they're one of the easiest cars to break into". This, coupled with social media, could be encouraging youth.
"Sometimes people join these [social media] challenges to make a name for themselves and get known within a community but a lot of time people are doing it to become a part of a community," says Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker.
Last week an aisle of chips at an Auckland supermarket went up in flames - that is also potentially linked to teens on social media.
"We have to start to look at these challenges and take them a bit more seriously than we have in the past," Cocker says.
"When they were things like planking and ice bucket challenge, they were interesting, involved a lot of people and sometimes did something positive. But when you talk about setting chips on fire and stealing cars then clearly you're starting to see some harmful behaviours then it's time we started looking more closely."
