Rental cars were stolen from SRQ airport. Hertz worker was running side hustle, cops say
Police have arrested a Hertz employee at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport who they say was running a side hustle, renting cars on the side for his own profit.
The Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Police Department and the Sarasota Police Department launched an investigation in October after discovering that rental cars were being stolen from the airport.
In October and November, police found that 10 rental cars had been taken from the airport’s Hertz Car Rental location and that a Hertz employee was “renting the vehicles off the books for his personal financial gain,” a news release states.
On Wednesday, police arrested the employee, Donald La Shard Poole Jr., of Palmetto, and charged him one count of grand theft auto. Poole, who turned 29 on Tuesday, was released hours later from the Sarasota County jail after posting a $1,500 bond.
There are still several rentals cars identified as stolen that remain unaccounted for, according to airport authority Chief of Police Ted Kohuth.
“Any person engaging in the unauthorized use or theft of a rental car, or the fraudulent use of a driver’s license or credit card to unlawfully obtain a rental car at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport will be targeted for investigation and subject to criminal arrest and incarceration,” Kohuth said as part of his issued statement.
This is not the first time that rental cars have been stolen from SRQ airport. Several members of a crime ring were arrested in 2018 after more than a dozen vehicles were stolen.
In those thefts, many of the cars stolen had their keys left inside, leading the car rental facilities to change security policies. Three of the vehicles stolen were taken when the car thieves cut through a gate. All the cars stolen were from various car rental facilities.
