Turo Is A Car Rental App. Local Drug Addict Used It To Rent A Car That She Then Crashed, Lost. Turo Claims It Took Care Of The Situation. Car Owner Says That’s Not True.
BY: ANDREW COLTON | Editor and Publisher
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2021 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — A drug addict rented a Boca Raton man’s Hyundai through the Turo app, then crashed the car, apparently lost the car, and took off. After a mandatory waiting period, Boca Raton Police reported the car stolen. It was found in Margate days later. Now, Turo wants credit for taking care of the situation, although no one connected to the situation say that the company did.
As we reported on Wednesday, Sarah Rowlands is the woman who rented the car. According to a police report, her mother told Boca Raton detectives that she is a drug addict who relapsed on narcotics while she had Shawn Skoff’s Hyundai in her possession. She apparently didn’t remember crashing Skoff’s car or leaving it at a gas station in Broward County. Rowlands is now facing a Grand Theft Auto charge in Boca Raton. The total damage to the vehicle: $5,283.
Late Thursday night, BocaNewsNow.com received an unsolicited email from Turo spokesperson Alexandria Mao. She claimed, with very carefully chosen words, that Turo had taken care of Skoff and his car.
“When we learned that Mr. Skoff’s vehicle was involved in a trust and safety incident, the Turo team took immediate steps to support him,” wrote Mao, “including working with local law enforcement to recover the vehicle as expediently as possible and helping cover damage costs related to the incident.”
But Boca Raton Police make no mention of Turo’s “trust and safety” team being involved, at all. And Skoff says Turo’s left him with a $1750 deductible.
“It would be nice if they pay,” he said.
While Turo determines its level of coverage depending on how much of a daily charge the car owner is willing to spilt with Turo, Skoff suggests this i a special circumstance that could have been prevented with legitimate background checking.
“It doesn’t seem that Turo ran any background check on (Rowlands), other than to confirm that she had money in her checking account,” said Skoff, who suggested the address she provided in the app is a halfway house. BocaNewsNow.com could not confirm the address provided.
Turo Spokeswoman Alexandria Mao claims incidents like these are rare.
“Turo makes trust and safety a top priority and has robust protections in place to support hosts, including working with local law enforcement to recover vehicles and covering costs related to incidents when they do occur. The proprietary Turo Risk Score helps to reduce undesirable conduct on our platform. Trust and safety issues remain extremely rare on Turo, but when they do occur, Turo is proud to offer what we believe is a best-in-class team and process to support our hosts.”
If Turo really covers “costs,” as Mao claimed, Skoff says he’d like his $1750 as soon as possible. He says he’s already absorbed the cost of having the odor of marijuana removed from another vehicle that he rents through the app. Skoff said in that matter, Turo told him that he had to prove that it was a renter who smoked in the car for them to pay, and provide the ashes. “They seriously wanted me to send marijuana ashes to them.”
