Imagine going to the airport to drop off the keys to your rental car before flying home.

If a man in the parking lot told you to give him the keys to the rental car, would you do it, or would you insist on going up to the rental car desk to make sure the keys were properly turned in?

In this story, one person is in this situation and insist on going to the rental car desk to turn in the keys, but now they’re wondering if that makes them a jerk.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for not giving my rental car keys to a random guy in the parking lot

Last week I had to return a rental car at a small regional airport after a long drive from a major airport.

I found a marked spot in the Avis lot, and gathered my bags and started walking towards the terminal to hand over my keys and check out.

As I was walking towards the rental office, dragging my luggage, I was approached by a twenty-something guy in a dirty tshirt, shorts, untied sneakers, yelling into a cellphone as he walked toward me.

He comes over to me and says “she says to give me the keys” (still holding his cellphone up to his ear… so I wasn’t sure if he was even talking to me)

This seems fishy.

I said “who are you?”

He gets annoyed and says “SHE SAYS IM SUPPOSED TO TAKE THE KEYS”

I said “do you work for Avis?”

He is starting to get ticked and says “YES I WORK FOR AVIS, GIVE ME THE KEYS”

She points out why this seems fishy.

I said “where’s your name tag? You don’t have an Avis hat or shirt or anything? How do I know you work for Avis? I think I’ll just go into the terminal to the Avis desk and return them myself, but thanks.”

Now he’s super ticked. He yells “BUT SHE SAID TO GIVE ME THE KEYS”

I said, “listen buddy, I have no idea who you are, you’re not wearing any sort of Avis ID, like a shirt or ball cap or anything, I’m not giving you the keys, we can walk into the desk together and I’ll turn in the keys”

He yells “I KNOW WHY YOU WONT GIVE ME THE KEYS, ITS OBVIOUS” (he is black I’m white, so he’s implying I’m being racist for not giving him the keys)

She isn’t backing down.

I am now starting to get ticked, and I said “listen buddy, the only reason I’m not giving you the keys is because I have no idea who you are, you are not identified as working for Avis, and I wouldn’t give the keys to anybody in this situation, it has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that you have no identification that you work for Avis”

He is pretty much yelling now “OK, THATS HOW YOURE GONNA PLAY THIS? I SEE WHATS UP, YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS ABOUT. YOU KNOW WHY YOU WONT GIVE ME THE KEYS. ITS OBVIOUS”

So we walk into the terminal to the Avis counter, where the lady behind the counter in an Avis shirt gets ticked at me for not giving the guy the keys.

I give the keys to her, she gives them to him, and he huffs off.

Apparently he does work for Avis, and I am a jerk for not giving him the keys.

Avis seems like the jerk here.

The employees clearly need to look like employees, and they need to communicate with the customers better so that the drop off procedure doesn’t seem fishy.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I agree that Avis is the real problem here.

Another person agrees that it’s common sense not to give your keys to someone who doesn’t appear to work for the company.

This person would’ve done the same thing.

This is a good idea.

Someone who used to work for a car rental company shares their experience.

That guy needs a company ID.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.