21 charged after dozens of Mercedes stolen from car-sharing service car2go in Chicago
Twenty-one people face charges after dozens of vehicles were stolen from car-sharing company car2go's fleet in Chicago.
The company on Wednesday found a total of 100 cars unaccounted for, 50 of which were Mercedes-Benz vehicles, officials with the Chicago Police Department said in a statement. The cars may have been rented by deceptive or fraudulent means through car2go's mobile app, police said.
All cars have now been located, Chicago Police officer Jessica Rocco told ABC News on Friday.
Twenty-one people have been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass to vehicles and one of those individuals was also charged with felony financial identity theft, said Chicago police spokeswoman Sally Bown.
Car2go -- which now goes by the name SHARE NOW -- tweeted Wednesday afternoon that service had been temporarily paused while the company was working with law enforcement to "neutralize a fraud issue." Users' information was not compromised, the company said.
The company tweeted Thursday, "SHARE NOW will continue to assist police while we recover and then methodically inspect our Chicago fleet over the next several days. Once we have more information about the reinstatement of our service, we will provide an update."
Car2go allows users to rent cars "on demand" in urban cities, according to its website. A Smart car costs 24 cents per minute, while Mercedes-Benz CLA and GLA vehicles cost 29 cents per minute. The service is available in 25 cities around the world, seven of which are in the U.S.
