O'HARE — A group of thieves drove Hertz rental cars off their O'Hare Airport overflow lot and damaged the vehicles in the process early Wednesday morning, police and a company spokesperson said.
The incident was reported around 2:50 a.m., according to Chicago Police.
A statement from Hertz confirmed the thefts Wednesday, adding that no Hertz employees or customers were hurt.
The company is "working closely with airport and local law enforcement on the investigation" and "putting additional security measures in place," the statement continued.
A Hertz employee told CBS2 that the thieves made off with "between eight and 10" cars, and that one of them got out of the lot by ramming a stolen car into a barricade employees had tried to create by parking a car in front of the entrance.
The station showed video of workers cleaning up broken glass and repairing a gate.
Across the city, auto thefts were up 12 percent between 2015 and 2016. There were 11,318 vehicles stolen in 2016 vs 10,072 in 2015.
While there were no numbers immediately available on rental cars, Illinois Vehicle Auto Insurance said there were 97 cars stolen in the O'Hare area in 2016, up from 46 the previous year. Some 83 percent of reported thefts in the O'Hare area were in airport parking lots or garages.
