After accusations resulted in numerous false arrests at gunpoint, the company recently announced it will pay $168m to settle 364 claims
On 13 January 2021, a swarm of police officers with guns drawn suddenly surrounded Saleema Lovelace in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, and asked the 45-year old local community activist to exit the Nissan Sentra she was driving.
Lovelace, a member of Philadelphia’s 39th police district advisory council, an organization that seeks to liaise between police officers and local residents, was asked by police to roll down her windows and exit her car before she was placed in handcuffs and put in a police patrol car.
Her elderly father who was also in the car was also detained by the police, as shown in body-cam footage obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
As Lovelace began hyperventilating in the patrol car, a police officer proceeded to tell her that they were responding to an auto theft call. The Nissan Sentra that Lovelace had been driving for half a year after getting into a car accident had been reported stolen by Hertz, the car rental company.
But that was not true.
Lovelace is one of nearly 400 people who have filed claims against Hertz in recent years over its false accusations against its customers of auto theft. The accusations have resulted in numerous false arrests at gunpoint – including that of a 13-year-old girl and in some cases, jail time for as long as seven months, according to one customer.
The company recently announced that it...
KUANTAN: An elephant handler has expressed disappointment over claims that three Malaysian elephants sent to a Japanese zoo are suffering in their new environment. Mahout Suhaimi Ibrahim, who spen...