HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Renting cars for work or family trips, then getting pulled over, at gunpoint, and being accused of driving a stolen car is certainly not what customers hope for when purchasing a Hertz rental.
Our Investigates team exposed this problem in the Houston area, and now we’re seeing action.
Houston customers have been saying that they’ve rented cars from popular rental car retailer, Hertz, then, for various reasons, the car is reported stolen. The customer is then usually put in a confrontational situation with officers who are holding them at gunpoint or claiming the customer has a warrant for their arrest.
HARRIS COUNTY ATTORNEY GETTING INVOLVED
Now, the Harris County Attorney’s Office is getting involved. The HCAO represents the county in all civil matters, including lawsuits.
The Harris County Attorney’s Office saw KPRC 2′s story and reviewed the documents posted online.
In response, the attorney’s office said, “The Harris County Attorney’s Office is now exploring options on how to proceed with these cases.”
Initial reporting by the KPRC 2 Investigates team highlighted four cases connected to Houston.
Including Zanders Pace, who got his arrest warrant thrown out after we brought it to the attention of the D.A.
UNCOVERING MORE CASES
Since our last report, we’ve learned of at least four more cases of people in the Harris County area facing criminal charges.
HERTZ’S STATEMENT
We reached out to Hertz about these new developments. The company declined to comment, and instead, referred us back to an old statement:
“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. 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. Situations where vehicles are reported to the authorities are very rare and happen only after exhaustive attempts to reach the customer.”
