Several vehicles – including multiple Audi SUVs – went missing from the Amtrak parking garage next to 30th Street Station on Sunday night. Authorities believe that thieves may have targeted one of the rental car businesses that stores vehicles in the garage.
Three of the seven stolen vehicles were recovered in the Somerton section of Northeast Philadelphia as of Monday morning, according to 6 ABC. Still, police were investigating the incident to determine who stole the vehicles and where the other four cars might be. Fortunately for investigators, rental cars typically have tracking devices installed in them that make it considerably easier to locate them if they go missing.
There is no word on whether the thieves made any attempt to disable the tracking devices in the vehicles, but there is reason to believe that the suspects had at least some inside knowledge that helped them pull off the heist. The cars were stolen after thieves broke into a lockbox in the garage that contains keys to the rental cars housed there.
Audi, the German luxury car manufacturer that made at least three of the vehicles stolen Sunday night, is known to build its cars with security in mind. The automaker has won several industry awards for its anti-theft technology and its vehicles even make it notoriously difficult to steal their catalytic converters, a practice that has become increasingly common for thieves in Philadelphia and beyond due to the high-value precious metals found in them and the relative ease with which the devices can be removed from cars.
In addition to serving local motorists and transit customers using 30th Street Street to travel to and from Philadelphia, the multi-level parking garage is also used by rental car companies to store and deploy rental vehicles to its customers. Enterprise, Avis, Hertz and Alamo all operate rental car services out of the University City train station, which serves as a major transit hub of the northeast United States. There is no word on which of the rental car companies were targeted in the heist, which is still under investigation.
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