The Hertz Glitch Landing Customers in Jail

Thanks to a glitch in Hertz’s system, car rental customers are ending up in an unlikely place: jail. The company is apparently accidentally reporting cars as stolen when they’ve been properly rented, and some customers are getting pulled over and arrested, sometimes spending up to two weeks in jail.

Hey Hertz drivers, have you been to jail yet? You might end up there at some point because of a glitch in the car rental company’s systems. Due to the glitch, cars are getting reported as stolen when they’re actually lawfully rented and those customers are getting arrested and thrown in jail. Some have been arrested at gunpoint. Others spent two weeks in jail.

It appears that the issue occurs when customers switch from the vehicle they’ve originally rented to a different one. According to Hertz, reported by View From the Wing, it’s only happened to about 30 people.

“The problem is Hertz has broken computer systems,” Francis Alexander, an attorney working with one of the customers who was arrested, told ABC Action News. “They have broken policies around standard operating procedures and, as a result of that, good people are being thrown in jail. It’s shocking, it’s bad and it needs to stop.”

For Hertz’s part, they acknowledge the problem—but that’s about it. Sometimes they pay damages to the customers who rented the cars. But it doesn’t appear they plan to do much else to remedy the problem.

“False reports of stolen vehicles are extremely rare,” Hertz spokesperson Tressie Rose told ABC Action News. “When it has occurred, it has been the result of unique and extenuating circumstances. In the rare instance an error within our controls has occurred we take responsibility.”

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