Driver Leaves Walmart in Wrong Car, Doesn’t Notice For 2 Weeks
She accidentally swapped her rented Nissan for someone else’s Infiniti.
An Ontario woman accidentally upgraded her rented Nissan for an Infiniti. Unfortunately, that Infiniti did not actually belong to the rental company, reports Seaway News.
Many of us have attempted to return to our cars in a big parking lot only to realize we had the wrong car. I know I have—try driving a red Miata or a blue Subaru. Fortunately, these lovely devices called "keys" have prevented me from accidentally getting into a car that did not belong to me.
Proximity keys are a modern convenience that automatically enables access to a car when the key nearby or inside. For that reason, it's very important that the driver takes the key with them when they walk away, or the car remains unlocked. The driver of one particular Infiniti did not. When this woman accidentally mistook the Infiniti as her rented Nissan, there was nothing to stop her from getting in and driving away, oblivious.
When she returned the car two weeks later she complained that the car had not been clean and that there was even a set of golf clubs in the trunk. But it was the rental office manager who made the connection. He had rented her a Nissan, and she brought back an Infiniti that did not belong to them.
Retracing the woman's steps, they returned to the Walmart she went to immediately after the rental office and found the Nissan safe and sound in the parking lot. Embarrassed, she called the Cornwall Community Police Service to own up to her mistake. Police confirmed that the Infiniti she had been driving was reported stolen two weeks earlier.
All's well that ends well. The rental agency got its Nissan back, with virtually no miles put on it. The owner of the Infiniti picked up his car at the rental agency. And police pressed no charges in this case of mistaken automotive identity.
