Prince George's County police officer charged with driving stolen vehicles appears in court

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Prince George’s County police officer who was suspended without pay after being charged with illegally using a stolen car appeared in court Wednesday. 

FOX 5 was there as Sierra Alston made her first court appearance following her arrest on Oct. 3. 

Alston has not been charged with stealing the vehicles but police do have evidence she used three stolen BMWs that were the property of a rental car company at Reagan National Airport.

She declined to answer how she allegedly came to use those cars.

"Get those cameras out of my face," said to FOX 5 when asked for comment. FOX 5 also put a call in with Alston’s attorney.

RELATED: Prince George’s County cop arrested at DCA for unauthorized use of vehicle

According to an affidavit, the company the cars were stolen from, SIXT, realized earlier this year that they had a total of 30 vehicles missing from their fleets. FOX 5 reached out to the company with a list of questions about how this could happen, if they’d found the other 27 vehicles and if they’ve made security changes.

They didn’t respond to those questions, only saying they were working with police on the matter.

Jim McCarthy lives in Fairfax and is a retired rental car company security manager. He says the nature of this industry is that some vehicles go missing and that it's always been ripe for theft and fraud but he also said 30 cars at one location is a lot.

"It’s not an uncommon occurrence to have a bunch of cars missing," McCarthy said. "When the human factor is involved, the sky is the limit on the way that people are going to try to rip you off."

 Alston is still only charged with illegally using three of the stolen cars and as of now, there is no connection between her and the other 27 missing vehicles.

Her next court appearance is set for December.