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A Corvette enthusiast who inherited his love for the legendary sports car from his dad, Putich bought an Elkhart Lake Blue Stingray.
To help make the payments, he decided to rent it out on the popular Turo app.
He used the app for a year with no problem, until he agreed to a three-day rental on Nov. 18, 2023.
“Thirty minutes before the renter was supposed to drop it off, he was 3½ hours away, so I knew something was up,” Putich later told a news reporter.
Eventually, the car’s OnStar system would show the car was somewhere in the Mississippi River!
Putich believes the sensor itself was torn out instead and tossed in the water to prevent tracking the vehicle’s location.
What’s it like to realize his dream car is gone?
“I mean, there’s always inherent risks with renting a car out,” Putich says. “I always try to treat it as a business. Knowing it was not going to come back was tough.”
Apparently, Putich isn’t alone in his heartbreak, as “headline after headline” tells of other Turo hosts reporting their cars stolen, too. Such thefts shouldn’t occur, theoretically, since Turo offers an explanation of its registration system for renters: “To book a car on Turo in the United States, you must create a Turo account, be 18 years old or older with a valid driver’s license, and get approved to drive on Turo. When you’re booking your first trip, you’ll go through a quick approval process by entering your driver’s license and some other information. In most cases, you’ll get approved immediately, and you’ll be set for every future road trip, business trip, and family vacation!”
Unfortunately, what Putich calls “100 percent … absolutely a flaw in the system” has led to thefts like his elsewhere across the nation when crooks use fake IDs to rent the cars and then disappear.
The investigative reporter asked Turo for an interview about their process for screening IDs. They responded with a statement but didn’t address how they scrutinize the IDs, saying instead: “While rare, incidents such as these are covered – each trip backed by liability insurance, reimbursing for damage or loss up to the car’s actual cash value.”
Even if Turo does eventually reimburse him for his car, Putich says it’s been a “nightmare end” for his dream car.
To help make the payments, he decided to rent it out on the popular Turo app.
He used the app for a year with no problem, until he agreed to a three-day rental on Nov. 18, 2023.
“Thirty minutes before the renter was supposed to drop it off, he was 3½ hours away, so I knew something was up,” Putich later told a news reporter.
Eventually, the car’s OnStar system would show the car was somewhere in the Mississippi River!
Putich believes the sensor itself was torn out instead and tossed in the water to prevent tracking the vehicle’s location.
What’s it like to realize his dream car is gone?
“I mean, there’s always inherent risks with renting a car out,” Putich says. “I always try to treat it as a business. Knowing it was not going to come back was tough.”
Apparently, Putich isn’t alone in his heartbreak, as “headline after headline” tells of other Turo hosts reporting their cars stolen, too. Such thefts shouldn’t occur, theoretically, since Turo offers an explanation of its registration system for renters: “To book a car on Turo in the United States, you must create a Turo account, be 18 years old or older with a valid driver’s license, and get approved to drive on Turo. When you’re booking your first trip, you’ll go through a quick approval process by entering your driver’s license and some other information. In most cases, you’ll get approved immediately, and you’ll be set for every future road trip, business trip, and family vacation!”
Unfortunately, what Putich calls “100 percent … absolutely a flaw in the system” has led to thefts like his elsewhere across the nation when crooks use fake IDs to rent the cars and then disappear.
The investigative reporter asked Turo for an interview about their process for screening IDs. They responded with a statement but didn’t address how they scrutinize the IDs, saying instead: “While rare, incidents such as these are covered – each trip backed by liability insurance, reimbursing for damage or loss up to the car’s actual cash value.”
Even if Turo does eventually reimburse him for his car, Putich says it’s been a “nightmare end” for his dream car.
