Rental cars occasionally get reported stolen, even when no theft has occurred. This has resulted in renters get detained, arrested and even put in jail.
While many of these incidents can be chalked up to sloppy paperwork or not returning a car on time, a lawsuit claims “Hertz has been falsely reporting untold numbers of customers for car theft” and “throwing them in jail on felony charges for months,” even though customers have paid to rent a car.
The lawsuit also alleges that the company’s inventory tracking system is broken and, instead of fixing the issue, they simply report missing cars as stolen. It also claims the company is “effectively using the police, criminal justice system, and taxpayers to subsidize [their] inventory control.”
Also Read: Renting A Car For Your Summer Vacation Might Get You… Arrested?
The lawsuit says that several plaintiffs have suffered as a result of Hertz’s actions, as some have several spent months in jail, while another suffered a heart attack after “being held at gunpoint for car theft.”
The suit claims that when a vehicle is missing or overdue, Hertz creates a “theft package” which is given to the police and includes information about the renter and the vehicle. It also alleges the company falsely tells police that renters never paid for the vehicle and their computer system will “secretly delete customer rental extensions” in certain situations.
Those are just a few of the highlights, as the lawsuit is over a 100 pages long, but it brings up a problem that we’ve reported on in the past.
However, Hertz told USA Today they strongly dispute the claims made in the lawsuit and will “vigorously defend” themselves. According to a company spokesperson, “the vast majority of the claims involve renters whose arrests resulted from their failure to return rented vehicles for weeks past their due date, in violation of the rental agreement and despite our repeated attempts to communicate with them about the status of the vehicle.”
