Thieves are reportedly using car-share vehicles to steal mail

Mobility company Lime is best known for its go-anywhere, throw-anywhere electric scooters, but it also launched a car-sharing product this year called LimePods. The service uses technology similar to the functionality of the scooters to allow quick and easy access to a car for cheap. Unfortunately, the anonymous-to-the-public nature of the business is being taken advantage of by criminals. According to reports from KIRO7, the shared vehicles are being used to steal mail and packages. 

The reports come from Renton and Bellevue, Washington, just outside of Seattle. This past May, a Renton home surveillance camera caught a LimePod Fiat 500 stopping at multiple mailboxes to pull out anything of interest. This type of caught-on-camera evidence is typically a major break in an investigation, but because the cars all look the same and could see multiple drivers throughout each day, the situation was much more complicated. KIRO7 says there are approximately 1,500 of the Fiats in Lime’s Seattle-area fleet.

The cops caught a break this week, though. A 32-year-old-man was reportedly arrested for identity theft in relation to mail theft in the Bellevue area. Similar to the incident in Renton, dozens of surveillance cameras caught the man taking packages and leaving in a Lime vehicle. Using a warrant to search his home and a locker in Renton, police recovered 200 items of evidence, including stolen mail, IDs, passports, credit cards and stolen packages.

For more information on the story, head over to KIRO7.