Woman says a loaded gun was found in her rental car

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ/Gray News) - When you rent a car, you may find a few dents or scratches, but most people don’t expect to find a loaded gun. However, that’s exactly what was in one Virginia woman’s rental car.

Christina Sumner of Roanoke said she was shocked and concerned there was a loaded gun left in her rental car. She’s now warning others to thoroughly check their rental cars before driving away.

Sumner rented a car from Enterprise in Roanoke on Feb. 2, and everything seemed normal at first. Then Enterprise called her a day later, telling her there may be a gun in her car.

“They had to send an officer out, and the female officer went right to where it was located. It was a fully loaded clip,” Sumner said.

There was 9-millimeter handgun in the pocket behind the driver’s seat, right next to her 4-year-old daughter’s car seat. She found out about the gun before her daughter was in the car.

“Anything could have happened, especially with a child,” Sumner said. “She could have been looking around and found it, she could have hurt herself, she could hurt me or anyone else, and that’s very scary.”

Now, Sumner said she is questioning why the gun wasn’t found when the previous renter returned the car.

“They have a complete clean pledge to clean it from the inside out before placing someone else in the vehicle, and they did not follow that policy at all,” Sumner said.

Sumner said she’s tried to get ahold of Enterprise for days, but no one has returned her calls.

“I could have gotten pulled over with it, I don’t know if it was used in any crimes, or someone could have been injured,” Sumner said. “If this person did not contact Enterprise and say they left a gun, someone would have definitely found it and it could have possibly been my daughter.”

In a statement, Enterprise said, “Upon the return of each vehicle, our procedure is to clean everything including checking under seats, in the glove compartment, in the center console and in door compartments. The safety of our customers is our top priority, and we are investigating what went wrong in this case.”

The rental company said it will “revisit with our service agents on the proper procedures to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We have a very formal training process, instructing all of our employees on the proper cleaning of a vehicle, including inspections for customer belongings. We are very sorry this happened and are working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The company said it’s been in contact with the renter, and “we are working with her to come to a satisfactory resolution,” a spokesperson said.

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