Suspects in car rental thefts arrested

Police in Denver have charged four men  on the suspicion that they may be part of a ring of car thieves targeting expensive SUVs. The thieves rent the SUVS from rental agencies at Dallas International Airport and then fail to return them, according to a report in the Rocky Mountain News.

Lynn Kimbrough of the Denver District Attorney’s Office says that the thieves rent two SUVs at a time then probably drive them across the border into Mexico.

Kimbrough says that one of the companies affected, Hertz, has probably lost nearly $1 million to these thieves. Hertz has had SUVs stolen from Phoenix and Tucson as well as Denver.

The arrest documents state that the group used fabricated drivers licenses from Arizona and Mexico to steal six vehicles from DIA rental agencies in August.

Officials on the border between the US and Mexico were able to recover two SUVs but were unable to apprehend the drivers, who fled the scene and got away. One more vehicle was recovered in Phoenix but three are still missing.

In early September, another for cars were stolen. Two were recovered. One was abandoned the other was damaged by a collision with a cow.

The four suspects were two men attempting to rent SUVs with Mexican drivers licenses and two additional men. Marco Nunez-Peralta, 33, Zerafin Munoz-Lozano, 31, Ramiro Escarsega, 19, and Ismael Marrufo, 19 were charged with a variety of counts. Marrufo is facing a total of 10 counts.

www.hertz.co.uk