On Dec. 11, a dozen vehicles were stolen from a Hertz location in Gates, NY, sometime in the night.
At first, Hertz thought 17 cars were stolen; after cross-referencing inventory with other locations, that number was changed to 12.
Gates Police Chief Robert Long said the heist was “definitely something out of a movie.” About five suspects broke into the secured lot by cutting through the chain link fence. Once inside, they boosted a Chevy Suburban, using it to push a box truck parked in front of the gate out of the way. Then they used the big SUV to push the gate open.
By the morning of Dec. 12, police had recovered six to eight of the stolen cars. According to Long, those had been found parked in different locations. It's likely they were left in public areas to see if authorities found them using GPS trackers. Thieves often do this for a few days to keep police from finding their chop shop.
Police don’t believe those recovered rental vehicles were used to commit any other crimes. They were found in good condition, adding fuel to the theory they were left to be recovered by the thieves later if police couldn’t track them.
No suspect descriptions are available, though there’s surveillance footage of the theft. It sounds like the suspects covered their faces. Long said the suspects are likely teenagers since they’re most commonly involved in car thefts due to New York’s Raise the Age law. Car theft rings recruit minors to steal vehicles because of such laws.
