Marine vet Blake Gober says he was arrested and spent a WEEK in jail after Hertz car rental accused him of stealing a rental

A Marine veteran was arrested and spent a week in jail after he said Hertz falsely accused him of stealing a rental car.

Blake Gober, 33, was arrested three years after he said he surrendered a Hertz rental car he got from a West Virginia location in November 2019. He said he dropped off the keys at a drop-off station at the car rental company’s Reagan airport in Washington, DC. .

Gober said he was stopped in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2022 for speeding — and was told he would be extradited to West Virginia to face charges related to the alleged theft. He spent a week in jail on the charges – just a month and a half before his wedding.

“They pulled me behind the vehicle, handcuffed me and said there was a warrant out for my arrest out of West Virginia,” Gober said. ‘It was hell. It was the worst.’

Gober was indicted in January on charges of theft of a rental car and grand larceny and faces up to 12 years in prison.

Gober’s wife, Erica, said the entire year was “the hardest” of her life.

It is unclear exactly when Gober claims to have returned the car to Hertz.

Wes Prince, Gober’s attorney, alleged that others who rented from Hertz have been wrongly arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated for crimes they did not commit, according to CBS.

But Hertz denied Gober’s claims, saying he held onto his one-day rental for more than three months without paying.

Hertz said they tried to contact Gober many times via email, text messages, phone calls and mail, all of which they claimed he “ignored.” They claim he answered one call and the representative hung up on him.

‘The facts remain unchanged: Mr. Gober rented a car from Hertz for one day. He kept the car for more than three months without payment. “Hertz repeatedly contacted Mr. Gober about his car, including via email, text messages, phone calls and certified mail,” the company said. CBS mornings.

‘Mr. Gober ignored all assistance from Hertz, except for one phone call in which he hung up on a Hertz representative when asked to return the vehicle. Ultimately, Hertz reported his car as stolen.”

Gober claimed he had not received any emails or phone calls from Hertz.

However, according to court documents, representatives apparently used an old address and incorrect phone numbers, Gober said.

Gober is one of several other Hertz customers who accuse the company of wrongfully arresting them for stealing rental cars.

Last year, Hertz agreed to pay $168 million to settle claims from outraged customers falsely accused of stealing their rental cars.

The massive multimillion-dollar payout will resolve 364 pending claims, and Hertz claims it will recover a “meaningful” portion of the amount from its insurers.

“My intention is to lead a company that puts the customer first,” CEO Stephen Scherr said in a statement.

“We are committed to that goal in resolving these claims,” he said, acknowledging that the company “would not always be perfect.”

The hundreds of wrongful detainer claims began in 2015 and stem from corporate negligence, which often occurs when customers try to renew a rental, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Among the hundreds of claims was one from Saleema Lovelace, who had police pull guns on her outside a mall in Montgomery, Pennsylvania, in January 2021 after they were falsely told she had stolen her Hertz car.

Footage shows police shouting at her to “stand back, step back” and put her hands behind her back before an officer handcuffs her.

The Philadelphia resident appears visibly confused by the arrest as she sits in the back of a police car and tells officers, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

At that point, an officer explains, “The reason you’re being held now: this car was reported stolen from the Hertz rental car.”

But when an officer asks if she rented the vehicle, Lovelace replies incredulously, “Yes.”

Lovelace said she rented the vehicle from Dollar Car Rental, a subsidiary of Hertz, for six months after she was in a car accident, according to local news station WPVI.

She said she even arranged with Hertz to have the car inspected — and the company charged her registered card $4,000 just one day before her arrest.

“I was really scared,” Lovelace told Inside Edition. ‘Then I just lost it. Stolen vehicle? This car wasn’t stolen.’

Ultimately, the charges against her were dropped.

Nick White said the same thing happened to him while on vacation in Georgia with his daughter after renting a car from Thrifty, another Hertz subsidiary, an hour before police pulled him over.

One officer, he said, “then pulled out his gun and told you to put your hands up.”

White was never arrested after an officer at the scene called Hertz for clarification.