A woman involved allegedly in "rentangay" (carnapping in the guise of renting a vehicle) was arrested by operatives of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) 7 in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.

The woman has been implicated in a wide network of “rentangay” modus operandi in the country. 

Six vehicles were recovered from the suspect.

Five victims of the said modus visited the office of HPG 7.

A trader named “Bert” who is into buy and sell purchased three of the units that reached over a million pesos.  He thought he struck luck when he was able to get the units at a “good price," but it was too late for him to learn that he bought stolen vehicles. 

Another buyer named “Jack” did not have second thoughts about buying a sedan at P400,000. Jack said that the suspect was able to present complete documents, albeit old copies.

Later, Jack learned that the old documents shown to him were all falsified.

Bert and Jack returned the vehicles to the legitimate owners. The owners were also at the HPG 7 office for a visit.

“Jerry,” a resident of Bogo City, northern Cebu, said that his car was rented for two days and was paid in full. However, he could not reach the person who rented the car after that.

The next thing he knew, he said, was that he was called up by a member of the HPG 7 on the recovery of the vehicle.

The victims said that they trusted the suspect immediately because of the nice treatment accorded to them.

They said they negotiated with only one person they referred to as “Franz.” HPG 7 said they had launched an entrapment operation against “Franz” but he was not in the given area.

However, the HPG operatives nabbed a certain “Dennis” who negotiated with the buyers.

The operatives said that the suspects are already known in the “rentangay” modus and have been in and out of jail. They have a reported vast network in the entire country, not just in Central Visayas based on a complaint received by HPG 7. 

HPG 7 said it mulled on filing cases for carnapping and large-scale estafa so the suspects could not post bail at all. 

Three other stolen cars are at the custody of HPG 7 pending the claim of the legitimate owners.

The woman is detained at the HPG 7 facility. She admitted that she has been tasked to run errands such as processing of documents, and that she gets a “commission” worth from P30,000 to P70,000 for every stolen car sold.