Saleema Lovelace was in a car that she had rented from Dollar Rent A Car. She was stopped by Pennsylvania police officers who were armed with guns.
Lovelace was placed in the custody of officers and was told to relax and keep her hands behind her back.
“C’mon step back, Miss! Step back!”Police body camera footage showed that a police officer shouted at Lovelace.
“Sure, I didn’t do anything wrong,”She said.
However, officers claim they took her into custody and said, “The reason you’re being detained right now. This car is reported stolen from Hertz Rent a Car.”
Lovelace began to hyperventilate. As she claimed that she rented a car, Lovelace also told police that she had the receipt. This proved that she had rented the car from her phone.
“Well, that’s where it’s between you guys. Unfortunately, they kind of screwed you over and they said that the car was stolen,”An officer from the police tells her.
Lovelace was placed in handcuffs by police and taken to jail
“I’ve never been inside a police car before or been in handcuffs before,”Inside Edition hears her story. “I was really, really scared! …I just lost it! A stolen car, what do you mean? This car is not stolen!”
Lovelace was telling it the truth. She was cleared of all charges.
Nick Wright said the exact same thing happened to them during a vacation to Georgia. He rented a car through Thrifty with his 14-year old daughter. During their first hour of vacation, they were stopped by police.
“As we came out to the car, there were just police cars from every direction,”Wright speaks out for Inside Edition
He says that after the rental plate was stolen, police officers pulled their guns onto the vehicle.
“Hadn’t even had the car for 45 minutes,”He said.
Wright captured the scene on video.
“This is what happens when the rental company doesn’t clear a stolen license plate vehicle from a national database,”In the video, he speaks. “Yep, that just happened!”
Police radioed for clarification.
“We have a vehicle entered through you all that was reported stolen, but it appears these people just rented it and were just trying to get clarification on this vehicle,”An officer states.
Wright and his daughter weren’t arrested. Wright, his daughter and Lovelace are all suing Hertz.
“How a corporation can be so callous in their customer service approach is hard to imagine,”Francis Malofiy, their lawyer, speaks to Inside Edition
Stephen Sherr, CEO of Hertz, promised to fix things last April.
“It’s not acceptable to Hertz to have any customer, a single customer, caught up in what’s happened,”He said it before.
“Hertz needs to be held 100% accountable for every single person this has affected,”Wright speaks out for Inside Edition “To find out this has been going on for four or five years; it’s atrocious.”
Hertz didn’t comment on the specific allegations, but they have moved to dismiss Lovelace’s case. They have until January in which to respond to Wright’s lawsuit. Inside Edition received a statement from Hertz stating that they rent vehicles out to many millions of happy customers every year. They say that they are passionate about their customers and will work as quickly as possible to resolve negative experiences with drivers.