Marine vet was arrested after Hertz accused him of stealing a rental

A US Marine veteran says he was arrested six weeks before his wedding for stealing a Hertz rental car he returned years earlier in Washington D.C.

Blake Gober, 33, rented a car from Hertz in West Virginia back in November 2019 and dropped the keys off at a return station in the Reagan National Airport, CBS News reports.

Three years later, Gober said he was pulled over in Louisville, Kentucky, for speeding. But instead of just getting a ticket, the Marine was told he would be extradited to West Virginia.

“They pulled me behind the vehicle and placed me in handcuffs and said that I had a warrant out for my arrest out of West Virginia,” Gober said. “It was hell. It was the worst.”

Gober found himself indicted in January for theft of a rental vehicle and grand larceny, facing a possible 12-year prison sentence that would see him separated from his wife.

The veteran’s case, however, is not uncommon, as Hertz has found itself under fire for allegedly filing hundreds of false theft accusations throughout the years.

Like Gober, many Hertz customers had found themselves arrested and imprisoned, with some taken into custody at gunpoint.

Last December, the rental company agreed to pay $168 million for 364 cases of alleged false reports, with US senators also calling on the federal government to investigate Hertz.

Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr, who took over the role in February, claimed the incidents stemmed from a glitch in the company’s systems.

The company, however, stands by its allegations against Gober, claiming he kept the one-day rental for more than three months without paying.

The company also claimed they made repeated attempts to contact Gober, but all their calls, texts and mail went “ignored.”

Gober refutes the company’s claim, saying he never received any messages from them, with court documents indicating that Hertz sent their correspondences to the vet’s former address.

The Monongalia County prosecutor in charge of the case has filed to dismiss the charges against Gober, slamming Hertz as an untrustworthy plaintiff, according to CBS.

“The state has lost confidence in the reliability of the information provided by the victim in the case,” the prosecutor said in the filing.

Gober and his wife, Erica, have said this past year has been the hardest of their life as they hope the case is successfully dismissed and the veteran can return to his life in peace.

“Charging an innocent person and trying to go after an innocent person, that’s not justice. That’s the opposite of justice,” he said.

Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 after struggling with its debt and a drop in travel caused by the pandemic. It operates Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty car rental brands.