Katie Wedell and Laura Layden writing for USA Today with a bonkers story on how renting a car could literally turn you into a criminal.
She’s [Paula Murray] now one of 230 plaintiffs suing Hertz for false arrest and in some cases prosecution. The lawyers for this cohort say they know there are more cases out there – warrants for arrest that people who rented from Hertz years ago don’t even know exist, like ticking time bombs waiting to explode their lives at any moment.
USA Today
This entire thing sounds like something out of a low-budget comedy, but it certainly is anything but funny. According to Wedell and Layden's reporting, Hertz files an average of 3,365 police reports about stolen vehicles involving its customers each year. The story seems to be that someone rents a car from Hertz, returns it, but the company doesn't have the return recorded. Then they report the car as stolen and that sets off a full chain of events.
While the truth about the entire ordeal for these 200+ people may be a bit murky without personally knowing all the details, suffice to say I'll simply use another rental company the next time I need a car for traveling.