Two teens caught in stolen vehicle from Hertz Rental lot

GATES, N.Y. Police say two teens were caught in a stolen car from the Hertz rental property in Gates.

More than a dozen vehicles were stolen from a gated Hertz lot near the airport Saturday night into Sunday morning. Gates Police Chief Rob Long said at least five to six suspects are responsible for this.

He said the suspects cut the fence with a bolt cutter or some other tool. Once they were inside, they were able to use a Chevy Suburban to push a smaller commercial box truck out of the way of a fenced-in area and push the gate open.

“We recovered multiple cars in the city and they were in different areas of different neighborhoods, all relatively in good condition,” Long said. “I’m not aware of any of them being damaged other than the one vehicle that used to move the box truck out of the way and then take out a fence.”

Chief Long said they have seen an uptick in car thefts over the past few months, but nothing of this magnitude.

“We’ve had a record number of cars stolen this year out of the town of Gates, just occupied you know, people leaving their cars running at gas stations or running in to get a pizza or a sub and teenagers going and taking the cars because there’s no repercussions anymore,” he said. “It’s really hard for us to put a teen into any sort of criminal justice system to get them the help that they need.”

He said they have been able to recover at least eight of the cars that were stolen.

“So some of them we found because they had GPS tracking in them, so we knew approximately where and there was some great work from our colleagues in the sheriff’s office and the city police department just out on patrol.”

Chief Long said they will be adding extra patrols in the area so this doesn’t happen again. News10NBC did reach out to Hertz corporate.

“We can confirm the theft of several vehicles at our Rochester Airport Hertz location and we are working with law enforcement on their investigation,” a Hertz spokesperson said.