PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Free2Move vehicles, the car-sharing vehicles people can rent in Portland, have been disappearing from city streets, according to Multnomah County court documents.
While investigating a report of a vehicle that had been stolen while leased to the company, a Portland Police Bureau officer learned that 11 of the Free2Move vehicles have been stolen, according to a probable cause affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the investigation began on March 16, 2023 when an officer responded to a woman who reported that her white, 2022 Jeep Renegade that was registered to her business called LeasePlan USA had been stolen. It was last seen on November 22, 2022.
The car had been leased to the car-sharing company Free2Move and had the company’s logos on the exterior, the affidavit said. The estimated value of the vehicle was $24,000.
On April 3, 2023, another Portland Police Bureau officer contacted the manager for Free2Move to take more stolen vehicle reports.
The manager explained to the police officer that the Free2Move app allows renters to power the vehicle on using a key that is permanently inside the cars, the affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, Free2Move Manager Joseph Zayas told police that “over the past few months the company have (sic) been having issues with the vehicles being stolen due to a work around through the app that allows the vehicles to be started without authorization.”
Zayas gave police the license plate numbers of 11 vehicles that had been stolen, along with their last authorized user date and their last known location, the affidavit said.
On April 4, 2023, an officer on patrol spotted one of the Free2Move vehicles that had been reported stolen near Northeast 43rd Avenue and Fremont Street, the affidavit said. The officer performed a traffic stop on the driver and identified him as Robert Fremont.
After the officer read Fremont his Miranda rights and he agreed, the affidavit said he told the officer that his cousin had rented the vehicle for him and gave him the key fob. Fremont told the officer the fob was in the vehicle, the affidavit said.
However, when the officer searched the vehicle, she did not find a key fob. Instead, the affidavit said she found two, two-inch computer chips with wires hanging out of them.
Fremont told the officer these computer chips were the key fobs for the vehicle and that the computer chips can be used to start the vehicle by holding them next to the car’s start button, the affidavit said.
The officer noticed the vehicle’s wing window on the passenger-side front door had been broken, according to the affidavit.
Robert Scott Fremont is now facing two charges in connection to the vehicle theft: one count of unauthorized use of a vehicle and one count of possession of a stolen vehicle.
Fremont was arraigned on Wednesday, April 5.
The latest data available from the city of Portland, shows that 1,789 vehicles have been stolen in the city from the start of January through the end of February 2023.
KOIN 6 News requested a statement from Free2Move, but did not receive a response.