A 20-year-old Texan is now facing charges of felony breach of computer technology after he allegedly disabled the ignition and set off the horns of more than a hundred vehicles over the Internet.
Omar Ramos-Lopez, a 20-year-old Texas native, was earlier fired from his job as an auto dealer.
Lopez used his home computer to remotely disable the cars, which were all bought from his former workplace. The suspect used the password of his former colleague to elude the investigators, the police added.
Texas Auto Center controller Jeremy Norton said that they have installed a GPS device to all vehicles they sell to prevent the cars from starting in case it has been hijacked or stolen.
The system can also allow the dealer to repossess the vehicles when the customers failed to pay their overdue, which explains the car horns.
“Many of the customers who failed to pay overdue tend to hid the vehicles from us, that is why we usually activate the horns in case the owners tried to hide the vehicles,” he added.
Austin authorities said that more than a hundred vehicle owners were forced to call towing companies after being stranded on roadsides and their workplaces.
“Lopez has caused these people, his customers, and now his victims, to miss activities,” Austin Police Department Spokesperson veneza Aguinaga said in an interview.
“Many of them did not even know what happened. They even have to pay the tow companies just to get their cars to the dealers,” she added.
Lopez remained locked inside the Travis County Jail while waiting for the court decision. He can also post bail worth $3, 000 for his temporary liberty.
Meanwhile, Norton said that they are already doing everything that they can to prevent things from happening again.
He added that many of the owners’ names at the dealers’ record were even changed by Lopez prompting an immediate investigation.
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