Loaded gun found in rental car at Detroit Metro Airport
Hayley HardingAirport police confiscated a loaded gun after it was found in a rental car at at Detroit Metro Airport, an airport official confirmed.
Tay Smith rented the car to drive to Chicago from Budget Car Rental, one of the rental companies at the airport, said Fox 2, which first reported the incident. After a first rental car had a tire pop, he got a replacement car from Budget.
An employee then told Smith that they had moved his loaded gun, Fox reported, but Smith said the gun was not his.
"It's like, OK, it's that easy to get a gun?" Smith said. "You can even just rent a car and there's a gun inside."
Erica Donerson, spokeswoman for the airport, said in an email that a Budget employee reached out to the airport's Police Department to report the gun. An officer searched the vehicle, a 2020 Chevrolet Tahoe, and recovered a pistol.
"This does not happen often," Donerson said.
In a statement, Avis Budget Group said it "takes the safety and well-being of our customers and employees very seriously." The gun was found while the employees was cleaning a vehicle, the company said, and police were called immediately.
"We have apologized to the customer and offered them a full refund," the statement said. "We are also reviewing our internal procedures and taking disciplinary action to ensure this doesn’t happen again."
On the company's website, it notes that each car is inspected "to assess the vehicle's overall cleanliness." Its COVID-prevention measures include "paying special attention to interior customer touch points such as seats, steering wheels, door handles and other hard surfaces."
Reports from around the country show that while finding a gun in a rental car is not unheard of, it is still a rare occurrence.
Twitter: @Hayley__Harding