Everyone here is missing the biggest point. She has the proper paperwork showing that she is the rightful owner of the car. Hertz stole the car from her and somehow the authorities (DMV according to the article) claim that this is a civil matter. Uh, What? She has papers showing she is the owner. They took it. That's theft. How is that not criminal?

This is clear cut theft. They stole her car and should be tried criminally

Hertz: reports cars they rented stolen, and has their customers arrested. Also Hertz: doesn't bother to report a car stolen when it's actually missing.

Once she wins in court she needs to file criminal charges of car theft against hertz and the people at hertz who called this in and filled a false police report. It is so important that this happens because the people who did this need to be held accountable.

I do love how in the U.S. and here in the U.K. it's always a 'civil' matter when it's a business doing wrong, but it's 100% criminal if an individual makes the same kind of mistake.

There should be a penalty for authorities who falsely claim something is a civil matter out of laziness, when actually it isn't.

I was provided an insurance rental from Hertz in 2011. The body shop kept my car 8 days, and told the Hertz location the repair would take 8 days when they quoted job to insurance company. At day 5, Hertz began charging my bank card for the rental, even though the insurance was paying. When i protested, Hertz put a $500 hold on my bank card. It took 9 days to fix it and i had to file small claims to get a refund. I will not rent a car from Hertz under any circumstances.

Car gets stolen by a towing company Police say its a civil matter and the police wonder why they are hated.

Hertz: reports cars stolen that aren't stolen. Also Hertz: Steals cars that aren't reported stolen. Bravo Hertz, bravo.

Based on recent history, I was expecting Hertz to have auctioned the car off themselves, then reclaiming it just because.

Here in Oklahoma, I actually had a brand new Geo Storm illegally repossessed a yr and a 1/2 later because of a bank error. My wife, up at 4:30 AM to feed our baby, woke me up in a panic yelling "Our car has been stolen!" I reported it to the police over the phone and was told that it had been repoed. The terms of the loan allowed for a 3 month grace period. The problem was that I made all the payments on time every month. And even though my payment book, which is always initialed and dated by a bank official, showed this, they claimed that I was over the grace period. It took a month of a knock- down drag-out fight to get it back before the bank finally admitted to a clerical error. It worked out for me, because in order to avoid being sued they cleared the 2yrs remaining on the loan.

DMV should also be held accountable. Once the title was issued and registered to her they negated the 'civil issue'. Hertz should not be allowed to change anything relating to the car until this is settled in court.

The moral of this story is to steal a car with a tow truck to avoid criminal charges.

Throw the CEO in jail for stealing. That'll clean up their policies real quick.

I've had this happen to me, or something similar, and I believe it was Hertz. Hertz reported my car stolen. I was driving home from work and got pulled over. Within minutes I was surrounded by cops with guns drawn claiming that I was in possession of a stolen vehicle. While I did get it worked out, I couldn't believe the headache I had to go through in order to prove it was my vehicle and the danger I was put in during that initial confrontation with police.

That's wild...reminds me of a news story a while back where a bank mistakenly forclosed on a fully paid house and wouldn't relent after losing the cases in court untill finally the owners of the home had to get a forclose served on their local branch of the bank.

The towing company has no record of how the car ended up in their yard? That sounds fishy.

I had a bank "repossess" my car once. It was a used car that NEVER had a loan on it. The original owner bought it cash at the dealer and 10 years later I bought it cash from them. Not knowing what happened, I reported the car stolen. About 3 weeks later, the police come by and tell me they found the car, but a finance company has it claiming that I never made the payments. So I called the lawyer and gave him all the paperwork...took 6 months, but I got the car back, damages, and they had to reimburse me for the cost of buying another car. The best part--I bought the car in AZ and the finance company that took it was in GA and did not even operate in AZ. The arbitration hearing was a comedy. The arbitrators started with show us the loan documents. Nothing but stupid looks. I never had to "prove" it was my car, they had to prove they did not steal it. Near every military base there are shady car dealers/financers and they will steal anything.

What is amazing to me is they would rather attempt to bankrupt this woman in legal fees rather than give up a car they can easily afford to lose. They have to know they legally don't own the car in America where it resided at the time of repo.

Australia has a very simple solution to this. Cars that are stolen or have money owing on them, owners can list the vehicle on a REVS register. Buyers can get a REV's check certificate and and if it lists neither of those things, then the car can NOT be taken back from them. The onus is on the original owner to list the vehicle on the REVS register or they lose out.

So to summarise: Hertz Mexico didn't respond to the paperwork from the towing company, and so at that point lost title to the car. Hertz conveniently forgot this, and claim it's still theirs. Good luck, lady, you're clearly in the right here.

It is amazing that Hertz is still in business.

If, as they claim, they didn’t know the car was sold off at an auction… How did they trace it back to someone’s house and identified the car if it had been registered with a new license plate? They would have had to do some research to trace it through various owners, seen the records of transactions and simply opted to ignore all of that.

I used to rent from Hertz back when I traveled quite a bit. But they turned sleazy many years ago and I will never do that again. The one that really got my craw was, a month after returning from an international trip, suddenly finding an unexpected $200 (a lot back in the 80's) charge, with no explanation. I challenged the charge and after two months Amex closed it out - Hertz never responded to their query. They just wanted a $200 bonus and hoped the customer wouldn't notice

Knowing Hertz's track record, I'm shocked they didn't file a police report and have her arrested for auto theft.

The malicious part is that they had to have done a title search in order to find the new owners name, address, and new tags. They had to have known the car was no longer theirs.

I worked with a single mother on the run from an abusive ex go to jail for purchasing an enterprise rental car. She had the paperwork, receipts, and everything to prove she purchased it but they took her to jail for auto theft anyways. Last I heard she had skipped bail since her ex had found her from the jail publishing her name, photo, etc on their blotter. She went on the run because the police couldn’t protect her. Sometimes our system just completely fails.

I had something similar happen to me a few years ago. I bought a 2012 Ram, used at a dealership. I paid cash for it. Apparently, the dealership had bought it from another dealership, who got it from another, who got it from another, who got it from the original owner. During that time the title was apparently never transferred. My truck was towed because the original owner had multiple parking tickets against it. I had no plates at this time, not even temporary plates because they were not required in my state for 30 days until after purchase. They ran the VIN and it came back to the original owner instead of me. It was a pain in the ass to get my truck back.

Usually they rent the car to you then tell the cops you stole it, then hit you with late fees while it sits in the impound yard.

This whole thing of "it's a civil matter" just baffles me. So someone can drive off with your car or sqat in your house and despite you being the legal owner the entire justice system just shrugs it's shoulders and says " not my problem, you want justice, you better have money". Amazing to me.

I bought a car at a impound auction here in Michigan. About a week later I had the bank calling me and threatening me that the vehicle is theirs. I argued with them, the lady said she is going to talk to her manager and get back to me. I never heard from them again

I was under the impression that repossession of a vehicle you don't own is theft?

I used to be a Hertz customer. I had a car scheduled for me in another city I flew to. when I got there to get it I was told "oh, no car for you, you had a traffic ticket for something somewhere." the ticket happened a year or so before I made the reservation. if Hertz didn't like it, why didn't they look it up when I went to reserve the car? I walked across the airport to National and they handed me keys to a nicer car for less on the spot 🙂 I still wonder how Hertz exists anymore 🤔

Remember when Hertz went around filing fake stolen care reports to where people who rented from them ended up getting arrested, charged with auto theft, and thrown in jail. One guy who never even rented a car from Hertz got his name in their funky database and ended up spending 6 months in jail for a crime he didn't even commit.

I'd phone the police and demand they arrest the CEO of the company for grand theft auto. She has the paperwork to show legal ownership. If they want compensation, they need to sue the person they rented it to.

Legally auctioned, Hertz lost that vehicle when they didn't respond to the tow company.

I’m going through a situation kinda like this with the city of Mobile Alabama. I was the lien holder on a vehicle. I never got any payments and the customer disappeared. About a year later the vehicle some how made its way into a Mobile city impound lot, and was sold off at a police impound. We were actively looking for the vehicle and buy chance found it on a car lot in Theodore, AL by searching the VIN number. I called the dealer to find out how they came in possession of it and they told be the Mobile police auction. So I called the police department and after quite the run around, I spoke to the lone employee in that department. It was her responsibility to take the proper steps to be able to sell this vehicle. Over the phone, the attitude I got about my inquiry was that of a young lady who “snakes” her head back and fourth when speaking about things she would not like to be a part of. In a nut shell she said she contacted to owner, the fees weren’t paid, so they moved forward with selling it. Generally speaking, if the owner of a vehicle is a year and a half behind on payments, they don’t go pay the impound fee. When I asked why I wasn’t contacted considering I’m the lien holder, she said there wasn’t a lien listed. When I told her I had the title in my hand clearly showing me as the lien holder, she told me that she was busy and didn’t have time to talk to me and that I could “get a lawyer” if I didn’t like it. Well by God that’s what I did. It’s on going at this time, but currently a third party consultant that contracts to the city says that the city doesn’t feel like they are at fault and is denying my claim. Big surprise huh! What the city of Mobile has failed to realize is that I am the #1 fan of fuck around and find out. Come he’ll or high water, the city will pay me for my vehicle and the headache I’ve had to deal with since this all began. Remember folks, the more you fuck around, the more you will find out.

Hertz has worked hard to build this new reputation. They have certainly earned it. I used to rent from them, competitively with other companies, but haven’t for years now simply because they have elevated the risk of hassle and legal issues just for doing business with them.

It's not a civil matter. They stole her car, that makes it a criminal matter.

there was already a class action lawsuit they agreed to settle for falsely reporting cars stolen, which resulted in some people spending months in jail. They just agreed to the settlement maybe a month before this incident.

I’ve never seen a company that can’t keep track of their vehicles but perfectly explains why they keep filing for bankruptcy

I'm perplexed why the cops didn't order the towing company to give her the car back once it was revealed that her paperwork was correct. "It's a civil matter, but for now it's hers. If a judge says differently we'll talk then but she's leaving with this car."

Avis: "We try harder." Hertz: "We quit trying."

Boycotts Hertz Companies. They should move fast to make Her whole. People have long memories. I’ll think twice before using them.

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER rent a car from Hertz. I heard about the stories of them claiming cars were stolen and had people arrested WHO HAD OPEN CONTRACTS for the car rental. One guy spent 4 months in jail because of this. Another guy, an ex police investigator was arrested in a 7-11 parking lot because Hertz claimed the car he rented was never returned. A few weeks later I returned a car to Hertz in Nashville airport and two weeks later Hertz called me and ACCUSED me of not returning the car. It was a 6am and there was no attendant. At 8am they should have barcoded the car in and issued a receipt. That was NEVER done. This when on for weeks. Finally an investigator found the car on the Nashville lot in the maintenance bay. They NEVER checked it in. I rent from AVIS now.

My god, Hertz is absolutely never going to recover from all these scandals, thefts, and false police reports. It’s literally gotten to the point people have to consider before rental that they could be putting their own lives at risk simply by renting from such a reckless company like Hertz.

I've read several stories where people rented cars from Hertz. They did not record the rental properly. When the cars were noticed not being on the lot, they reported them as stolen. So here they were on vacation and got pulled over for a stolen car.

I’m from UK and a colleague bought an ex military vehicle from auction (with all relevant paperwork). Several weeks later police turned up and recovered vehicle as reported stolen. Colleague waited several weeks then reported vehicle stolen by police to police. They said “not to be ridiculous” but owner persisted and vehicle was returned a couple days later…no apology/explanation.

Recently used Hertz, they took my reservation for Christmas Eve but the rental place was actually closed that day. Left me in a terrible situation and then they hit me with a $150 "no show" fee. Funny how I only got a refund, but not paid $150 for my troubles. No show only goes one way If it was worth my time I'd take them to small claims for breech of contract to recoup the difference in having to get a last minute Christmas Eve rental from another company

My question would be, how the hell did Hertz even find the car? They weren't looking for it too hard when it went missing.

Saw this thing happened to a man in Michigan as well. He got a default judgement since Hertz didn't show up or respond

They should start charging Hertz employees or the CEO for wrongful police reports and for car theft.

That rental company is such a mess their slogan should be, "We'll make all your rentals Hertz like hell!"

I had something like this happen. When I was 19, I got a car impounded, but the impound lot tried to auction it while it was still under impound and moved it to a neighboring town. The sheriff department caught it, found the car, and wrote me a letter advising me to press charges for grand theft auto. I did. Turned out it was my landlord and his junk yard. Then he tried to hold the car from me until I paid him what he illegally paid at auction for it. He went to jail then a few months later died of a heart attack.

As soon as it was stolen from Hertz, their insurance should have paid them anyway.

Late to the show, but how come Hertz, who doesn't legally own the car anymore, is not sued for theft? You can't legally "repossess" something you don't legally own.

The last time I dealt with Hertz, they were VERY quick to use the threat "or else we'll report it stolen immediately". Like, get it here by this time, not a minute later or else we'll report it stolen. Use the original credit card to extend the rental and not a different credit card or a debit card or we'll report it stolen. I'll never do business with them again. It's been my experience that the people who are most defensive about getting stolen from are thieves.

I use to work for this corporation that had in house counsel. Part of my job was to email the lawyer abt certain actions to see legality of such. And most times the lawyer would reccomend not to do it or reccomend other steps. When i wrote up a report and sent it to powers that be 99.99 percent of the time they would go against legal advice. Could not figure out why until i found out that majority of the time people could not afford or the price of a lawyer cost more than what it was worth. Even if they could sue for court costs and such it sometimes just wasnt worth the risk or they did not have the money up front. I think hertz is just playing a numbers game. They probably did this a few times and just havent made the news yet. I think its a dirty game personally.

At one point in December 2022 our car was repossessed shortly after we had made our final payment in October that year, it turns out after we had paid they "lost" our payment. I had to ride through freezing snow and ice for two weeks until they mysteriously found our payment after I threatened to sue. Then I got stuck with storage and towing fees that if mclarty had done their job wouldn't have existed.

If dmv says she is the rightful owner why can she not go and reposes that car.

Part of me thinks that hertz knows exact what's going on and is hoping to frustrate the victim till they give up, because the other explanation is simply that they are simply too dumb to understand how badly they messed up. After everything is said and done, it will end up costing hertz far more to fight this than they can hope to recoup from hypothetically get the car back and throw it back into circulation.

My brother used to own a towing company. One day an apartment complex called him to tow away an abandoned car. It was a 2 year old Nissan Maxima with a flat tire and a bent rim. He went through the whole process of notifying the lienholder through registered mail as required by the state. After the required wait time for a response, it was sold with a new title. Three months after it was sold, the bank that was the lienholder called and said that they were sending a tow truck to pick up the car. When he told them that the car wasn't theirs anymore, they threatened with a lawsuit. My brothers lawyer put a swift stop to the proposed lawsuit.

The tow company needs to be charged with Grand Theift Auto .

From all the Hertz issues that have been reported in the last few years, I'm beginning to think the company is run by a psychopath. Seriously, who does business like this? I don't think they even want customers anymore.

I find it appalling that a corporation can get away with anything they want! And no one gets punished. This needs to change!

Towing company just shows up at her home, and confiscates a vehicle because "someone told them it was theirs". Hertz being scumbags aside, how long are these towing companies not going to be held accountable for that BS?

You would THINK that a towing or repo company would at least check to see if the person sending them out has legal authority to do so - title, ownership of property where the whatever is parked, something - even if they don’t run an actual title search. That they don’t always amazes me.

She paid the tax and back taxes on this car and the state threw their hand up. I call bs. Would she not also have a case against the state for throwing their hands up and not stepping in on her behalf?

I have had a few situations like this as an auto theft investigator for a police dept. If the person that had the vehicle towed from them can produce a lien free title I had the owner meet me at the tow lot and instruct the tow /repo company release it. They would complain and I told them it is a civil situation. Period. In Arizona the title denotes ownership, no lien no legal repossession, end of story.

You'd think Hertz would either consult with their legal department before doing this, or fire them for the terrible advice they keep getting.

People I know in south Texas had a Ford LTD stolen in the 1970’s. The car was taken into Mexico, there was nothing the police could do. About 6 months later they were shopping in Mexico when they saw the car parked. It had Mexican government plates on it. The dad still had the keys so he tried the lock - it opened. He started the car and drove it back to the US. He really got a kick out of a decal on the sun visor “Property of the Federal Judicial Police.” He stole his car back from the Federales. Apparently they really liked the Ford LTD as police cars but they were hard to get in Mexico. Self help 1, Federales 0.

She was probably the ONLY person with clean hands in that car's life cycle.

How the hell this isnt a criminal case?

I rented a car at Hertz in Dearborn, Michigan. Went to the gas station to fill it up & it had no gas cap. I returned the car with the exact fuel level it was rented at and the clerk DID NOT open the gas cover at all, but charged me $35 for a missing gas cap, then added $170 for missing fuel because she said it went out full, not with the less than 1/4 tank. Only when I started to call the Dearborn police did she drop the charges (I still have both of the receipts)

I had this happen to a customer of mine. The former finance company got wind of the new registration went down to my customers house and towed the car! Thank goodness the vehicle was bought at the local police auction by my dealership so the police had record of the car being sold to the dealership. What a scam!

Ask the corrupt district attorney why charges aren’t being filed.

I spent many years as an insurance adjuster for a large insurance company. I was forced to deal with Hertz due to our corporate agreement. I had some epic run-ins with Hertz forcing them to honor agreements.

Weirdly how towing companies are always blameless. "We don't know how we ended up with this car" is a valid explanation. Great business model.

The towing company that first auctioned it has stolen the money and misrepresented their ownership ...... I think there has been a few shonky deals here.

I'm wondering how Hertz found out about the car being in her possession. Especially since they didn't bother to respond to the notification that it was about to be auctioned.

So Hertz not only obstructs justice and puts innocent men behind bars out of sheer laziness, and gets people arrested for using their services normally... but also STEALS CARS. Hertz is GTA protagonist.

Hertz...the only company whose name tells you exactly what it feels like to do business with them.

Anytime I hear about Hertz it reminds me of this special about the companies weird reactions to theft/rentals and I remember one man saying that Hertz hurts people. And now thats the slogan I associate with them because they do these outlandish things to people or customers.

BOYCOTT HERTZ WORLDWIDE!

She needs to report the car stolen herself.

There should be a penalty for falsely accusing someone of a crime…

I was a top hertz renter. Now I wouldn't ever use them again.

I purchased a car from hertz, better keep it in my garage.

It was stolen. Stolen by Hertz.

It sounds like Hertz conspired with a towing company in the theft of a vehicle.

Hertz has a bad reputation. They have been known to get people arrested for stolen vehicles that are paid up. People of money and prestige at that.

I really hope there is a follow up to this story. I want to see this lady either get her car back or compensated properly for all the stress and mental suffering.

One thing that sticks out to me in this case. The tow yard that auctioned the vehicle has "no records" as to how the car ended up in their yard. That is going to be a problem. Without a tow record of how and why the car was impounded, the auction may be nullified. Definitely not the woman that bought the cars fault. My theory is that the car was sold to a "friend" of the tow yard at a decent discount, noticed the valuation (between $501-$4000 for a 2022 Camry, LMAO) on the auction paperwork from a TV report, then flipped on facebook. Knowing the shadier side of the towing business, not an unreasonable assumption.

Reasonable attorney fees and treble damages?? Yes please😮 there will be plenty of pockets to pick sellers , towing company, herts..even dept of motor vehicles.. 😡

GREAT INFORMATION AND THANX A MILLION MY FRIEND!

This is a PR nightmare that Hertz can't afford. Their best move would be to have that car towed back where they found it, appologize, ask for forgiveness, and take them to a VERY nice resaurant for dinner. But of coarse, they won't. They seem to hell-bent on doing the wrong thing lately.

Loved the chuckle when you read “Hertz brand standard” in their statement.

Failing to report something stolen when you know for a fact someone has it when they aren't supposed to could be considered abandonment to me.

My viewing experience, which was otherwise excellent, was marred only twice by commercial breaks. The 1st advertiser at each break was . . . You guessed it, HERTZ! 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Loved your perfect explanation of self-help.

Back in the Navy days, hubby bought a bike from a guy on base who was mustering out. In CA all you need is to sign the back of the pink slip (title) This particular bike had changed hands more than a dozen times without ever being re-titled at the DMV. It took me nearly a year and probably hundreds of trips over to the DMV before we were finally able to title it on our name. That was back in 1978. We still have her. She's a 69 Shovel. And worth every minute of that clusterfvck! ❤️