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Twenty-one people have been charged with a wave of car rental theft in Chicago.
They were all arrested after more than 100 Mercedes-Benz cars were stolen from the car2go car rental service, according to Chicago police. Several of the arrests took place on Wednesday, when the company announced the suspension of its service in Chicago due to a problem of "fraud" isolated from the city.
Twenty people have been charged with the offense of violating vehicle ownership, the police said. They were all released with cashless bonds after their first court appearance.
Another man, Angelo Patterson, faces numerous crimes, the police said.
Patterson, 19, was arrested Wednesday morning while driving one of the stolen cars in East Garfield Park, police said. He was arrested and charged with aggravated identity theft, alteration of a counterfeit card and criminal trespassing into a vehicle.
He was released Thursday, also on bail, police said.
The police did not say if the people accused of stealing the vehicles were working together.
About 50 vehicles are still in the Chicago area and at least a dozen of them have been found, police said. The flights occurred mainly on the west side.
The company, car2go, worked with the police "to neutralize a problem of fraud". The company stated that no personal or confidential information had been compromised.
The company, a subsidiary of Daimler North America, was established in Chicago in 2018 with 400 environmentally friendly cars that subscribers could rent via a smartphone app.
Copyright SunTimes
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