At Least 260 Hertz Customers Say Company Knowingly Filed False Car Thefts Reports on Them

Customers who have rented vehicles at Hertz are saying the company is knowingly filing false reports of car thefts.

Several Hertz customers say they’ve been thrown in jail or arrested after renting a car for the company, only for it to at some point file a police report claiming the vehicle was stolen. Fox 5 Atlanta reports some of the victims were renting a car for vacation travel, renting a vehicle after their personal vehicles got into an accident, among other events.

One customer says police drew their weapons when they stopped him under the belief that he’d stolen the rented car he was using while on his way to work. “This moment changed my life. I was told this vehicle has been reported stolen. I was in a stolen vehicle,” said the victim, Paul-Anthony Knight. Knight ended up being charged with felony theft after being arrested.

Knight and 260 other people have similar stories, and they’ve filed false arrest claims against Hertz as part of the company’s bankruptcy filing, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

In an emailed statement to the FOX 5 I-Team, the company said the majority of these cases included people who were late with returning their rented vehicle.

“Hertz cares deeply about our customers, and we successfully provide rental vehicles for tens of millions of travelers each year. Unfortunately, in the legal matters being discussed, the attorneys have a track record of making baseless claims that blatantly misrepresent the facts,” reads the statement.

“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.”