21 Charged in car2go Rental Thefts in Chicago

21 people were charged in connection with a wave of rental car thefts over Chicago.

They were all taken into custody after more than 100 Mercedes-Benzer were stolen from the app-based rental service car2go, according to the Chicago police. Several of the arrests occurred on Wednesday when the company announced that there was suspended service in Chicago due to a "fraud" problem isolated to the city.

20 people have been charged with misdemeanor counts by criminal acts to cars, police said.

Another man, Angelo Patterson, faces several crimes, police said.

Patterson, 1[ads1]9, was pulled over Wednesday morning while driving one of the stolen cars in East Garfield Park, police said. He was arrested and charged with aggravated identity theft, altered a forged card and criminal offense on a vehicle.

He was released from custody on Thursday, also on a cashless bond, police said.

The police have not said whether the people accused of stealing the vehicles worked together.

About 50 of the vehicles are still in the Chicago area, and at least a dozen of them have been restored, police said. Theft took place mainly on the West Side.

The company, car2go, worked with the police to neutralize a fraud problem. The company said no personal or confidential information was compromised.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Daimler North America, launched in Chicago in 2018 with 400 eco-friendly cars that subscribers can rent through a smartphone app.

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