Groups of two, four and six individuals, between the ages of 17 and 23, would be linked to the theft of rental cars in lots at the Philadelphia International Airport since January 2023.
These are robberies that began with destroying the cars, after the security measures imposed by the rental companies (Avis, Budget, National, Alamo and Hertz) in their respective lots, up to the threats with a weapon to take the vehicles.
Special Investigations Commissioner Frank Vanore told a news conference Friday that “we are detecting a pattern that worries us, because we don’t know how many people are behind all this.”
The official explained that the robberies began as follows:
- The suspects arrived at the PHL facilities and boarded the buses provided by the rental shops, a very common service in all airports in the country, until they reached the lots.
- Once in the lots they chose the vehicle, because usually everyone is equipped with the keys inside, and they did their own thing to get out of the lot.
- Rental dealers began to implement security measures such as gates and a spike system on the ground to damage the tires.
“At one hearing, the suspects got into up to five vehicles. Some crashed them trying to get out and then left and others used attachments to avoid the spikes and flee with the car. Not all the acts were successful, but to date we have registered 35, five of which were armed forces”, Vanore pointed out.
The inspector said that community help is urgently needed to catch the suspects who were captured in surveillance images and because they have masks and hoods it is difficult to identify them.
This is the incident count:
- 35 robbery cases
- 5 firearms incidents
- 12 of the 35 were attempted robberies (they collided with the gate or gate or their tires exploded)
- 17 vehicles were recovered by authorities southeast of Philadelphia.
- Three arrests of 48-year-old adult men and two in the approximate 20s have been generated.
“We do not believe that the people arrested were the ones who perpetrated the robberies, so we know that there is something much bigger behind all this and we want to get to the end,” Vanore said. “We do not know the reason for the theft of the cars either, because we have found them intact through GPS.”
Anyone with additional information can contact the Philadelphia Police at 215-685-9130 or 215-686-TIPS (8477).
