MORGANTOWN – A Marine wants to clear his name after being accused of stealing a rental car from Hertz.
Blake Gober rented a car in Morgantown in November 2019 for one day and drove it to Washington. He says he returned it at Reagan International Airport. Three years later, he had moved to Louisville, had started a new job and was helping start a new church when he was pulled over for speeding.
Instead of receiving just a ticket, though, Gober was told there was a warrant for his arrest in Morgantown and that he’d be extradited there. It was just weeks before his wedding.
Travis Prince
| Courtesy photo
Gober says he returned the car in Washington, but Hertz filed a police report in January 2022. Less than two months later, the car was found in Alexandria, Virginia. It had been driven 7,492 additional miles.
The Monongalia County prosecuting attorney’s office recently dropped the charges against Gober, saying Hertz was an untrustworthy victim. If he had been convicted, Gober was facing 12 years in jail.
Still, Hertz stands by its claims against Gober.
“Almost four years ago, in 2019, Mr. Gober rented a car from Hertz for one day,” Anne Hart with Hertz Media Relations told The West Virginia Record. “He kept the car for over three months without payment. Hertz reached out repeatedly to Mr. Gober regarding its car, including by email, texts, phone calls, and certified mail.
“Mr. Gober ignored all of Hertz’s outreach, save one phone call during which he hung up on a Hertz representative when asked to return the vehicle. Ultimately, Hertz reported its car stolen.”
Travis Prince of Bailey & Glasser is one of the attorneys representing the 33-year-old Gober.
He says Gober isn’t alone in this predicament. Last year, Hertz agreed to pay $168 million to 364 other customers who had been falsely accused of theft. Members of Congress want an investigation into the issue.
“This young Marine has been trying for a year to clear his name and reputation,” Prince told The Record. “We have attempted to get documents from Hertz, who fought us on nearly every request we made.”
Because of the difficult year they’ve had, Prince said Gober and his wife Erica want to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else.
“It made no sense that night he was arrested, and it still doesn’t make sense,” Prince said, noting that the issue might be with Hertz’ automated fleet management system because of previous inventory control problems. “What happened to the others and what happened to Mr. Gober is awful because when you return a car, there sometimes is no one there working.”
Prince retold a story Gober had told him about his week in jail in Kentucky and the night he was extradited to Morgantown.
“He gets a speeding ticket leaving Erica’s apartment,” Prince said. “It was six weeks before their wedding. He was handcuffed, arrested and jailed in general population. He was sleeping among 40 real criminals in a room meant for half of that. He slept on the floor. For a week, he didn’t know what he was being charged with. He was fingerprinted, booked, given a de-lousing agent, strip-searched.
“Shortly after, he was transported to Morgantown under the cover of night like he was Al Capone. The authorities took it seriously because the allegations were serious. That’s part of the problem. There’s a lot wrong with this, but it’s not simply someone suggesting the vehicle was missing. Blake is just like the hundreds or maybe even thousands of others.”
Gober’s now-wife drove to Morgantown to post his bail. Prince said Gober has been fighting to clear his name ever since.
“For nearly a year, Blake was facing 12 years of jail time,” Prince said. “He didn’t know what was going to happen. He thought he was going to have to rely on the good people of Monongalia County to hear the evidence and believe him. The prosecuting attorney’s office concluded Hertz’ claims were not reliable.
That’s the same conclusion we came up with once we reviewed the case. Once that came about, because that was Blake’s goal to clear his name, we thought he was able to clear his name.”
But Prince says Hertz didn’t stop, saying the company’s allegations are not rooted in reality.
“As soon as we achieved that, Hertz takes it upon itself to disparage this young Marine,” Prince said. “They doubled and tripled down on these allegations that are false. The allegations the prosecuting attorney determined were unreliable.
“They might as well start their story with ‘once upon a time’ and completely ignore the repeated lies they told the police and court system about Mr. Gober. They’re not supported at all by the dismissal of these criminal charges.
“Instead of accepting what it did to Mr. Gober and hundreds of other people, Hertz paid $168 million to resolve. Those allegations are the same Mr. Gober faced and defeated. At some point, Hertz has to accept that fact. What they’ve done to Mr. Gober is what they’ve done to countless other people across the country.”
Prince also said there is no reasonable explanation for the extra mileage on the car when it was found in Virginia.
“If you drive from D.C. to Juneau, Alaska, and back, it would not have that mileage,” he said.
Last year, Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr said policies were put in place to “mitigate if not remove the risk” of such an incident happening again. Scherr also said Hertz “will do right where our customers have been negatively affected.”
In those other cases that were settled, Prince said Hertz consistently rented vehicles it claimed had been stolen.
“That is something Hertz has done, and there’s a lot of evidence,” he said. “Hertz admitted they rented the vehicle after Mr. Gober rented it. We asked for the itineraries of those rentals. We wanted to know when it was rented and by whom. They wouldn’t give it to us.
“Hertz has a practice of renting vehicles they claim to be stolen. Whether it’s a glitch in system or a negligent operator or whatever, the end result is the same. Vehicles accumulate miles by being rented while someone is fighting a felony charge that the vehicle was stolen.”
Prince said Gober’s situation is a perfect example of a nationwide problem having local consequences.
“I have a feeling that there are other people out there just like Mr. Gober,” Prince said. “He rented that car years before he was arrested. But for him getting that speeding ticket, he still wouldn’t know. That’s a consistent theme.
“Nearly all of those previous ones, they find out the hard way. They got a speeding ticket and got arrested. One was at the airport and got arrested. Another was applying for a job and got arrested. One woman applied for a job with the state police and got arrested.”
Prince said he and the other attorneys are exploring all of their options with Gober, including possible civil litigation. Prince and Brian Glasser of Bailey & Glasser as well as Wes Prince of Shaffer Madia Law are representing Gober.
“For us, our goal always has been to secure Blake’s freedom,” Prince said. “To ensure Blake is a free man and able to finally go on his honeymoon with his wife. This is someone who was handcuffed, shackled, placed in back of police car before being driven to Morgantown. They had to stop at rest stop, and he was led into the restroom clad in orange. People watched him walk in, and authorities stood right beside him as he relieved himself in the bathroom.
“This is a U.S. Marine who spent four years as a rifleman protecting our country’s freedoms. It just tears me apart.”
Prince said the former Hertz Gold member also might testify before Congress about the issue.
“Whatever we decide, it’s unfortunate we have to remember and constantly fight Hertz because they’re making it difficult for Blake and his entire family every single day,” Prince said. “If Hertz rented the car or somehow lost it after Mr. Gober returned it, that’s their responsibility. If Hertz expects its customers to manage its broken inventory control system, a rental agreement should come with a paycheck and a W-2.
“The last thing they should do is look back and simply file felony charges against the last person they think rented the car.”