Driver encountered with OC officers after his loaner car was accidentally reported stolen

 

Jamie Rodgers still to this day suffers from post-traumatic stress from getting pulled over by police for operating a mistakenly stolen Kia and is suing Kia Cars Pros Huntington Beach for negligence and infliction of emotional stress according to KTLA 5. 

Rodgers drove a 2019 Kia Sportage loaner vehicle from Kia Car Pros Huntington Beach in June 2021. According to The Orange County Register, he had been driving the vehicle for two months because his car was in the dealer for major repairs. 

Rodgers stated that the loaner contract had been accidentally misplaced by falling behind the file cabinet. The dealer realized the car had unpaid tolls so they thought it was stolen. 

The Orange County Task Force responded by pulling over the loaner car, leaving Rodgers scared and confused.  10 minutes later, officers realized their mistake and let him go. 

Rodgers was curious and unaware at first when he saw a swarm of Orange County police cars driving near him on the 73 toll road in Laguna Niguel happening an early morning. 

“They must be looking for somebody,” Rodgers said, who was commuting to his previous job as an athletic trainer at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano.

Due to his traumatic experience of getting pulled over on the freeway, he quit his job as a school trainer and is now a realtor. 

“He’s had to reinvent himself,” Scott Harlan, an attorney for Rodgers, said. “The problem with these things is an unintentional body movement can lead to death.”

The 39-year-old father of two children, Aaron Rodgers, still thinks to this day that the police were searching for a criminal lurking in the bushes near the freeway. However, peering through his rearview mirror, he observed the police cars stopping and drawing their guns behind him.

"You are considered armed and dangerous," the officer said through the loudspeaker. "Do exactly what I saw or you could be shot."

 

Rodgers instantly prayed that he would not be shot. 

“I’m thinking I’m going to get shot," Rodgers said. "I’m a Black man being pulled over in Orange County, I’ve heard too many stories of this happening. I’m thinking, I’m going to be next.”