An Avis Budget Car Rental employee in Syracuse, New York set up their own ‘Carbnb’ rental platform using the company’s cars. They reportedly stole 47 vehicles. And apparently reconciliation at the company is so bad that it took 3 months for the scheme to be detected. Avis went from Budget to overbudget, losing over $1 million in vehicles, while an ex-employee’s startup worked to steal-it-and-scale.
Milton W. Thompson III is currently wanted in connection with the theft-and-rent scheme that went on June through August. 42 of the vehicles have been recovered. Police have arrested several other people for unlawful use of a motor vehicle related to the case. Thompson is being charged with grand larceny in the second degree and scheme to defraud in the first degree.
Details of how the scheme worked haven’t been released. However,
- A current/very‑recent employee with system and yard knowledge can move cars, spoofing or bypassing contract steps, might exploit “internal use,” “shop,” or “shuttle” statuses for vehicles to take the units off the ready‑line.
- Many airport locations rely on physical key walls/lockboxes that are only as strong as their audit trail. Once a key is in an insider’s pocket, the car is gone.
- Lagged inventory reconciliation, reconciling fleet counts at shift end or overnight. But a months‑long window here allowed losses to compound before the Aug. 17 exception report that triggered the complaint. If you’re counting daily, you don’t lose 47 cars.
- Not every rental unit has active telematics/immobilization tied to the rental system. If units aren’t geofenced in real time, recovery is reactive rather than preventive.
One observer notes that “insider risk > perimeter risk. Your biggest vulnerability already has a badge and a login.” In turn, instead of fleet optimization Avis had fleet vaporization.
A less egregious version of this probably happens a lot.
Multiple times at JFK and LGA, I’ve:
– turned in my car
– had it checked back out
– had it turned back in before the 24 hour mark so no additional rate was incurred
– however, I was sent a bill for toll bridges that I didn’t cross
Avis did resolve it but it took up some of my time in each case. Those bridges are not cheap!
Hertz would have arrested the renters and given the employee a bonus
He shoulda just done crypto scams like our President.
So that’s why I show up with a reservation and there’s no cars available…
Oh jeez I’ve been avoiding Hertz but should I be worried about Avis?
I had this happen one time when I was returning the car at ATL and there was nobody to scan it in. I was told that they’ll check it in later. But it didn’t happen for two days. I had to call in and since it’s still shown as being rented by me, I could track the car. I had to argue with the agent on the phone that the tracking shows that the car is in their rental center lot.
Eventually they got it fixed. Nowadays I don’t leave until I get the email receipt.
So, Milton Junior thought it was a good idea to name the kid Milton III?