[wubbert]

>Lawyers for the customers say that the criminal theft reports are a way to recover lost inventory

If the "inventory" (the car) is "lost," then wouldn't that imply that the renter has a car that they shouldn't have? I.E. stolen it? Or at the very least not returned it when they should have?

[macintux]

As best I recall from previous times when this hit the news, Hertz's tracking was terrible, and customers had already returned the cars in question, or still had them but were paying for them.

Update: see this other comment for more examples. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32966606

[jffry]

These lawsuits allege that the cars were legitimately rented by customers, but Hertz screwed up the paperwork and then incorrectly reported them as stolen, and their customers suffered the consequences.

[mistrial9]

maybe it is safer income for Hertz to err on the side of "yes it is stolen" even wrongfully