Monday, April 15, was supposed to be an ordinary day for the employees of the Car2Go car-sharing service in Chicago. During the day, there was a surge in demand for luxury class Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The rental period for leased vehicles significantly exceeded the average trip duration in Car2Go, with many cars not being returned at all. At the same time, dozens of cars owned by the service left the company's coverage area.
Representatives from the company went to retrieve the vehicles and reported that the cars had simply been stolen. Although the Car2Go service can remotely block its own vehicles, the confusion at the time of the incident helped the criminals take possession of the vehicles. Representatives of the car-sharing service stated that they had never before encountered such large-scale cases of fraud.
After unsuccessful attempts to regain control of the cars, service representatives contacted the Chicago police for assistance. Moreover, a few days later, the Car2Go service was forced to suspend operations in the city due to difficulties in customer identification. In total, the company lost about 75 vehicles, many of which were eventually recovered.
It is unclear exactly how the criminals managed to take control of the vehicles. According to some reports, most of the vehicles were rented through the mobile app in a fraudulent manner. The police stated that many of the stolen cars 'were used to commit crimes.' Investigators still have to sort out the situation. It is known that 16 individuals have been arrested on suspicion of auto theft.
Although the incident in question was unique in the short history of car-sharing, it is a vivid example of the risks that companies operating in the internet-connected vehicle sharing sector may face.
Police reports indicate that stolen cars still had functioning GPS trackers, original license plates, and many bore Car2Go stickers when found. This significantly facilitated the search for the stolen vehicles.
Source: 3dnews.ru
