[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Someone deliberately edited the initial CCTV footage to delete some frames. Now, the kids didn't do that, did they?

This is the key point. It's unfortunate wrt the kids' action; but the gap in the video was not a system miss; but an adult's action to hide the actions of the kids.

I'm guessing the parents are potentially the guilty party for this. But I do hope the OP or atleast the mods can clear up on this; with whatever level of information that can be shared.

[rovingeye]

This is just bizarre. I can't fathom what must have gone on inside the kids' minds for them to even come up with this "idea". Perhaps its inspired by some movie or computer game?

At times I wonder if today's kids are becoming more violent due to over exposure to screens and violent, inappropriate content.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

I do not think a match stick or a candle can cause such a bad fire to the car. From the posted screenshots, i do not see anything substantial inflammable in their hands as well. Maybe this info will help narrow down on similar incidents in future

When they passed near the camera, one could see match box in their hands. They actually do it 3 times, before the fire shows up. The video was blurred during the 1st attempt, the photos show the 2nd and the 3rd attempt, as you can ascertain from the video timestamp.

[the_skyliner]

How terribly sad this is. Those kids are too young to understand the severity of their actions! I just can hope that their parents understand this. If the cctv missing clip stunt was deliberate from their side then this is even more sad.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

From the posted screenshots, i do not see anything substantial inflammable in their hands as well. Maybe this info will help narrow down on similar incidents in future

Something like camphor can be used in small quantity without much efforts to carry it in hand.

[ChiragM]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

What exactly did the kids do with the car for it to catch fire so bad? I do not think a match stick or a candle can cause such a bad fire to the car. From the posted screenshots, i do not see anything substantial inflammable in their hands as well. Maybe this info will help narrow down on similar incidents in future

They probably set fire to the insulation.

From the official review:

Originally Posted by Aditya

Soft foam insulation just behind the radiator grille:

[V.Narayan]

Children by nature do not understand the full implication of their actions. Why children, even as teenagers we are often clueless of the magnitude of our actions. As a child I have done some very daft things and the only thing I was thinking was how much fun it was to be doing the forbidden. I guess the parents will have to settle.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

They probably set fire to the insulation.

From the official review:

Is that insulation not fire resistant?A piece of such insulation behind the bumper had broken off in our i20 a few years ago. I was curious about the fire retardant property of the insulation and held it over a candle for nearly a minute. It did not catch fire . Just smoked and got black but never went up in flame.

Maybe the insulation material is changed in the newer models that are not fire retardant,


Also, whoever planned it and made the kids do this act was ill planned. Any sane person would have observed the location of the CCTV cameras would have easily identified the coverage area of the camera.

[Engine_Roars]

This is just so sad. I can not imagine how would I have dealt with those kids if they had done this to any of my vehicles. Kids being kids are supposed to be naughty and all but this is beyond "naughty", this is evil, this is dangerous and they need help. I hope the guy is able to recover all the cost from parents of those kids.

[tharian]

There are naughty kids and then there are the dangerously naughty kids. Yes, it comes down to parenting at the end. But I feel, this was done in their naughtiness and not with some grown up persons intent in their mind.

Hopefully they have learnt a big lesson which will pass on to their future generations.

[The Observer]

This is such a tragedy of innocence , no words to express the anguish experienced by the owner and the kids parents, at the same time, relieved in a way that this mischief did not result in loss of life or injury.

Some thoughts,as parents we need to keep an eye on our children handling flammable substances.

Gosh i am sure many of us live in apartments and our parking areas are easily accessible by kids, am paranoid now.

Edit : We had an incident in my apartment almost a year ago, where a few kids scratched my friends Verna and those were deep scratches, CCTV footage helped in identifying the kids and the guy approached the kids parents , no luck, in the end he chose to absorb the damage.

[tarik.arora]

No way, such small children can do this on their own. Someone was definitely guiding them. It could be their parents or someone who doesn't like the Verna owner but is closer to the kids.

I now feel for the parents as well. They have a big task at hand. How do you deal with such children? And not to forget the cost of this car. Around 15 big ones is a lot of money for anyone. For a middle class person, it could be well over his/her decade worth of savings.

[locusjag]

Reminds me of how my childhood friend nearly burnt down the cattle-shed attached to our rented house; the owner lived upstairs and they had a farm of sorts in the compound. He was going through a burning phase...he would fling burning matches everywhere. He would stone garden lizards and burn them. Where's he now? He's a normal human being living in the US - so far at least.

[vamsi2390]

Holy cow. Says about the quality of parenting. Really feel bad for the owner of the car. The only silver lining being that he can get a proper insurance settlement with the car being under 1 year old.

Just out of curiosity, on legal terms, if it was an adult who did this, what are the legal implications?
If so, will the parents who are obviously guardians be implicated in that ?

Also, how do insurance companies go about such cases where tampering, malice or sabotage is involved?

[Durango Dude]

This is horrible to say the least. Reminds me of the old Onida TV ad: "Neighbours Envy, Owners Pride". I have a strong feeling some one has instigated the kids to do this, it could parents or someone close to the kids.

[ani_meher]

Thanks to GTO for posting the update. This was expected by a number of members, but the age of arsonists was surprising. I hope the people who bashed Hyundai doubting its quality would now step up and retract their words.

The person who shot the first video is an accomplice too, as he/she knowingly misguided the community about the incident, causing unnecessary doubts in the car. A possible insurance fraud? The video taking person knowingly deletes critical minutes and makes sure that the time stamp on video is out of shot.

The children cannot/should not be cleared free because of their age and possibly parent's status. At what severity would they be held responsible? This act might have easily caused great damage to other cars/ life of people in the society.

Had there been no security camera, this incident would forever be a blemish on Hyundai, and emboldened by the uncaught act, the little criminals would have moved to bigger targets.

There may be attempts now to close this matter in a hurry. But I hope in such case this thread stays up on Team BHP.