Woman learns rental car was not registered; tags belonged to another vehicle

FORT MILL, S.C. — A Fort Mill woman learned the rental car she was driving had a registration that belonged to another car.

Erika Hogan said police pulled her over while she was driving the rental car.

They told Hogan the tags didn’t match the car’s registration.

Officers let Hogan go after she told them it was a rental, but her problems didn’t stop there.

Hogan travels and has rented many cars. She knows to check for dents and scratches but never considered looking at the registration.

“I’ve never thought to look in the glove compartment and see what’s in there,” Hogan said.

She rented the car from Avis while on a recent trip to Orlando.

“We originally rented a (Ford) Mustang,” Hogan said. “They told us they didn’t have a Mustang. All they had was a (Dodge) Challenger. We said we didn’t really want the Challenger. You know those cars kind of stand out.”

The car, itself, didn’t stand out to officers. It was the license plate.

“We got pulled over by police officers,” Hogan said. “I asked what happened. What did we do? And they said that they were running tags that weekend.”

That’s when she learned the tag on the Challenger was registered to a Lexus.

That’s not all she learned.

“They took the VIN (from) of the car, and they said that the car that we were in, was actually not registered at all,” she said.

After the officers let Hogan go, she called Avis.

She got a new rental car, but Avis initially charged her $167 for an early-return fee on the Challenger.

Avis agreed to refund the charge, but Hogan said she was more concerned about getting an unregistered car.

“It can lead to a bigger problem,” Hogan said.

Hogan still plans to rent cars but now she has more things to check.

“I’ll definitely will be more vigilant, myself, and just checking these things out,” she said. “Just with the cars and just to make sure on my end, I can stop it before it happens.”

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