PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Portland woman recently had her personal car and rental vehicle stolen, with one of the thefts coming at the hands of a con man.
Elizabeth Howard’s 1986 Nissan was recently stolen outside her house in SE Portland. Her insurance sent her to Enterprise for a rental car.
Within a few weeks, her truck was recovered in fairly good condition, which is when she went to return her rental at Enterprise’s NE 102nd Ave. location in Portland.
“I pull into the return car lane and I’m just cleaning out the car, getting any personal items out. And while I’m doing that, I get approached by this guy,” Howard said.
She says he presented himself as an Enterprise employee.
“He took the keys and I was like, ‘okay, well, you know, what do I need to do next?’ And he’s like, ‘well, you just pay up front at the desk.’ And I said, ‘well, my insurance paid for this.’ He’s like, ‘okay, well then you’re good. You don’t need to do anything else.’ And I left,” Howard said.
A little over a week later, Howard noticed a series of charges from Enterprise on her bank account. She called the front desk and was told they had no record of her returning the rental, but said they’d get back to her. She called again a few days later for an explanation.
“They said that they did find the video of when I dropped it off and that the person that I returned it to was not an Enterprise employee,” Howard said. “It’s just terrifying. Like, what do we do now?”
While her insurance eventually covered the stolen rental car, Howard says the way she was treated as a villain instead of a victim by employees was the worst of it all.
“Why can’t we just talk to, like, each other as humans? This is something that’s happened to the both of us. And the person that is responsible for what happened is the guy that took the car, not me. The customer,” she said.
Howard says she’s remained accountable for what happened on her end, and she hopes others can do the same.
“The fact that that man was out there and probably not greeted by anyone and just roaming around the parking lot. Enterprise is responsible for what happens on that parking lot,” she said.
KOIN 6 News talked to an employee at Enterprise Tuesday, who acknowledged that this theft happened, but that they don’t give out surveillance video or comment on these matters.