The stories keep coming of Hertz Rental Company unjustifiably arresting customers. But this one might be the most egregious. A woman has been arrested four separate times over a rental she paid for but never used. This happening even once is one too many times, but four times? And she was a Hertz Gold Member. We’d be curious how Hertz would have treated a non-Gold member in this same situation. 

What did the customer do for Hertz to arrest her?

This all started when Antwanette Hill rented a car from Hertz at the Atlanta Airport in 2018. Or at least she tried to. Because she was a Gold member, she didn’t have to go through the paperwork and hand off of the keys to the rental. You just go to the assigned car, get in, and go. 

But this is where it gets bad. A Hertz employee saw her start to drive away and stopped her. The employee accused her of trying to steal the car. Hill said she was a Hertz Gold member, and to look up her reservation so she could get on with her day. 

That’s what most workers in this type of situation would do. Instead, the employee called the police. She was then arrested for theft. Based on what we know so far, that is a huge leap.

All of this for a mistake by the rental car company?

In her lawsuit against Hertz, she states she was arrested three more times after the first. The arrests were for failure to appear in court after the first arrest. Hill says she never received any notification to appear. Each arrest came with nine days each time.

But the last arrest got really ugly. The fourth arrest in 2021 occurred while she was pregnant. Waiting in jail, Hill miscarried. She spent three days in the hospital for recovery. According to the lawsuit obtained by Insider, it says that “the loss of her child will haunt her for the rest of her life.” And there is more

Hertz Rental has its side

Since her first arrest, she has had difficulty getting a job. She’s an optician, and with the charges pending nobody wants to hire her. But there’s still more.

Amazingly, though obvious that the charges and arrests were a big mistake, Hertz has not dropped the charges. In its response, Hertz says, “ “Hertz cares deeply about our customers, and we successfully provide rental vehicles for tens of millions of travelers each year. Where our customers have been negatively affected, we are committed to doing what is right by our customers. At the same time, we will protect and defend against false claims intended to cause our company harm.”

As more information becomes available we’ll add updates to this post.