The lawsuits against Hertz allege a pattern of missing inventory in which Hertz, instead of conducting internal investigations to locate vehicles or correct records, files police reports immediately and pushes the issue to the courts.

“They have a head office in Oklahoma City who's basically not doing any investigation at the local level when a car is lost, misplaced, can't be found,” Malofiy said. “It's reported as stolen and they shift the costs of their inventory control to the police and to the prosecutors, which in the end is a taxpayer-funded repo service.”

During a lawsuit in Philadelphia in 2017, before the Hertz bankruptcy, Hertz’s national vehicle control supervisor took the stand and admitted on cross-examination that police reports do not always contain accurate payment information, contacts with customers, and that Hertz does not correct or supplement reports that it knows are false or misleading.

“Hertz is on record as saying that even when they learn information (in police reports) is inaccurate, they refused to correct it because it would hurt their relationship with the police and the police will no longer take their false police reports,” Malofiy said.

Court records show that police at the Indianapolis and Louisville airports did just that. After multiple reports of stolen vehicles that ended up being located on Hertz's lots, those agencies reportedly said they wouldn't take new reports from the company.

Someone is responsible for the policy of "just file a half-assed police report if the car can't be rented out when the computer tells you to." A human being should be sent to prison for that decision, if it can be proven they were the point of origin.

What a miserable piece of shit.