Former Hertz Car Rental customers have filed a lawsuit against the company suing for allegedly having them falsely arrested and jailed. Over 165 customers from Delaware, California, Florida, Illinois and other states have come forward filing legal complaints against Hertz. Each of them claiming to have rented cars from the rental company only to be stopped, arrested, and sometimes jailed over accusations that the car was reported missing.
The customers who each have rental agreements and bank statements to prove their innocence say that Hertz’s unreliable system and filing of false stolen car reports is to blame. James Tolen of Houston recalled being stopped by police in 2020, two days before Christmas.
“It was just terrifying. It was bad. Actually, I was really thinking that I wasn’t gonna make it home,” he told CBS News. Tolen and his wife, Krystal Carter, say they rented from Hertz at least twelve times that year.
Tolen was leaving a contracting gig when he said the officers had their guns drawn as they ordered him to exit the vehicle, lift his shirt to show he was not in possession of a weapon, and slowly make his way towards them during the traffic stop. Officers handcuffed Tolen and explained he had been pulled over because the car was listed as stolen he was perplexed. He said officers quickly saw him as a “felon” but that perception changed when Tolen showed the officers his rental agreement that listed him as an authorized driver.
“That’s when I heard officers telling them [Hertz] ‘Do you know what you guys put this guy through? He’s here for a stolen vehicle, his contract is valid, we’re going to give him back the vehicle, and you guys need to get a better system,” he explained.
In Delaware, Hanna “John” Ayoub says his 2019 long-term vehicle rental with the company turned into a nightmare that cost him everything. Ayoub made weekly payments of $300 to extend his truck rental, each time he saw the funds deducted from his account and received Hertz confirmation of his rental being in good standing.
However, he was dumbfounded when Hertz notified him that he was no longer an authorized driver, one day after confirming his third rental extension. A month later he was arrested and charged with car theft in Delaware and New Jersey. He would be in jail for the next three months.
“They [Hertz] said that they had no record of the extension on the vehicle despite speaking to them a day before and receiving confirmation,” he told the Delaware Online.
“Everything just turned into a nightmare from that point onward. I lost everything, my life, my reputation, everything.” The case was later dismissed after review of bank statements, rental agreements, and Ayoub’s recordings of his calls to extend the rental each week. Hertz, however, is standing by its stolen car reports, stating: “The vast majority of these cases involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with us well beyond the scheduled due date.”
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit, Hertz filed bankruptcy as the car rentals his a screeching halt. Along with filing bankruptcy, 12,000 employees in the U.S. were let go and furloughing at least 4,000. Recently plaintiffs in the false stolen cars report case were in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom to persuade the bankruptcy judge to allow their cases to go forward as Hertz was trying to get it tossed.
A company spokesperson said, “Situations where vehicles are reported to the authorities are very rare and happen only after exhaustive attempts to reach the customer.” Pennsylvania attorney Alexander Malofiy, representing several people in the lawsuit, says Hertz needs to be held accountable for falsifying police reports KATV reports.
“If you’re misstating half of the equation there in the police report and you’re telling police this person owes us money when in fact Hertz was fully paid that’s a serious failure,” Malofiy told KATV-ABC 7. “What we have seen is that all of these police reports are unverified, all of them have false information including back-dating rental extensions and falsifying payment information.”
Cases of pay disputes between customers and Hertz can be escalated “by filing a stolen-vehicle report, with the potential of involving police. There is no mention on the rental contract that a late car could lead to jail time.”
“We maintain significant documentation relevant to the law enforcement referral, including the rental contract, payment history, and a summary of communications with the customer,” Hertz spokesperson stated.
