Vanished into thin air

WESTERN BUREAU:

Forty days after an American woman rented a 2017 Toyota Corolla from Sixt-Rent-A-Car at the Sangster International Airport, she seems to have disappeared into thin air and the vehicle is nowhere to be found.

The woman, Antiellia M. Sterling, who tendered a New York State driver’s licence and a Visa credit card to the rental agency operated by Montegonians Orville and Nadine Spence, was scheduled to return the car on November 15.

However, she did not turn up nor has she answered her phone.“

“She stopped payment on the charges for the car,” Orville Spence told The Gleaner.

He said that despite efforts to reach Sterling via emails and phone calls, she has remained unresponsive.

“A report has been made to the police at Sangster, and Spence said that the last time he saw any footprints by her was on Facebook on December 7 when she posted photos at Dunn’s River Falls.”

Sterling has, however, been very busy, and on November 30 incorporated two businesses at Companies Office of Jamaica under the names Landtiellia Limited and Anteillia International, both bearing addresses in Cousins Cove, Lucea.

A man by the name of Everton Neil, also of Cousins Cove, was registered as the manager.

On arrival in the island on November 7, Sterling gave immigration the Coco La Palm Hotel in Negril as the address at which she would be staying.

But by the time she reached the rental agency, her address had changed to Point Village, also in Negril.

She came into the country on a JetBlue Airways plane at approximately 1:59 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International, New York, and there is no record of her leaving the island.

Sterling’s licence carries a Bronx address.

“The police so far have journeyed to Negril, checking the properties she said she was staying at. None of those places has any record of her arriving or departing. However, there is information she was seen in Cousins Cove,” Spence revealed.

Gleaner checks with the police confirm that an investigation has been launched into the missing car, registered 7231HL, but they would not give any further details, stating that this was an active case.

Spence says he has written to the United States Embassy seeking assistance in locating her.

A number of rent-a-car operators have reported being the target of fraudsters or thieves.

Immediate past president of the Jamaica Rent-A- Car Association, Rena Forbes, was busy on Tuesday trying to recover one of her vehicles that had been stolen earlier that day from one of her clients.

And Budget Car Rental’s Diana Stewart said one of her cars, a 2021 Suzuki Dzire valued at approximately $6.5 million, was stolen in Ocho Rios last week from a renter.

“I believe the people who are stealing the vehicles are part of a parts ring that’s cutting up the vehicles to get the parts,” Stewart told The Gleaner.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com