One startling and jarring reality about living in America is that American cops are so skittish and concerned for their own safety that the sound of a falling eggorn could end your life as you sit cuffed and helpless in the back of a patrol cruiser. Isn't that right, Deputy Hernandez? And now with the holidays coming up and people traveling and taking flights and renting cars, imagine how easily your life could end if the rental car company reports the car that you just drove off their lot as stolen. That's exactly what happened to an unsuspecting terrorized Wisconsin couple who rented a vehicle and were held at gunpoint by the Oceanside Police Department. A Wisconsin couple says a family trip to San Diego turned into a nightmare after they were pulled over by police with weapons drawn and forced out of the minivan that they had rented. It is a story Sergio Flores from NBC7 and Telmundo 20 responds has been following for more than two years. I remember this one Sergio and you've got a big development today to share with us. >> Yeah well Monica and Katherine the couple ended up suing the rental car company and just last week both sides went to court. We were there for the trial which took a sudden turn. But before we get to what happened, here's a reminder of how we got to this point. A >> and keep in mind to get to this point took two years. It's truly unconscionable. >> It's Oceanside Police Department. We believe you may be armed and dangerous. >> And you don't know why. You have no idea what's going on. driver, with your right hand, open the car door and step out. >> We couldn't even really look at each other because you can't move at all, but you know, I I remember kind of whispering that I love you. >> Okay, slowly come back towards the sound of my voice. >> Anyone else inside the car? >> My husband. >> It was terrifying cuz you first don't know if you're going to make it, what is going to happen, and why? a total nightmare. Isaina and Cole Buri from Wisconsin described their visit to Oceanside in 2023 after getting pulled over by police. That's >> this is almost February of 2023 and they just settled the case in October of 2025. This is more than 2 and 1/2 years >> because the minivan rental they were driving was reported as stolen. >> It's clear. >> After both were handcuffed and searched, officers looked through the minivan trying to find the rental contract. China and Cole said should be there. They didn't find it. >> Thousands of miles away from home. And what is going to happen? >> We're we're contacting them. So if they say it's a big mistake, we can take it. >> About half an hour later, police were able to confirm that Sheena and Cole were not driving a stolen vehicle. According to this police report, when dispatch contacted Paisley's car rental, the company said they never contacted police to take it out of the stolen vehicle system. To me, it's wildly ridiculous that a rental car company wouldn't have a safeguard in place in stone that only vehicles that have been cleared from the stolen car pool are allowed to be placed in the rental pool. No exceptions. And this process should be automated. A human being should doublech check and a second human being should sign off on it with the person who double checked. And there shouldn't even exist in the entire system an automated report that generates a stolen car alert to the police. And on the cop's side, they should have a steadfast policy where they will never draw their weapons unless they know the person is armed and dangerous. There should be a double redundancy. They should get on the radio and double check that that car in fact has been stolen before anybody opens a door, before they're told to step out of the car, and definitely before the officer draws his service weapon. You got four cops on this stop with their fingers on the trigger and any one of them could have easily put holes in this couple. The company said they never contacted police to take it out of the stolen vehicle system. So, if you rent a vehicle and you never bring it back, it's reported as stolen, right? I'm not saying you do. I'm just saying because it's a rental car, the last person might have done that eventually brought it back after they had already reported stolen and they never took it out of the system. >> In the video, we see Sheena's reaction as police explained why she and her husband were in handcuffs. The video also shows Cole talking and laughing with officers, but he says, "Make no mistake, he was angry and fearful underneath that laughter." >> On the outside, you know, just uh keep it together as best I could. And and I guess that's just how I coped with it was by uh laughing and joking. Well, not only that, when you think about it and it really sinks in what could have happened, what could have easily happened, what does happen, and they've probably seen many YouTube videos where it did happen, where a dog got shot or multiple cops emptied their magazines for no apparent reason, where somebody like Daniel Shaver or Philando Castile were completely compliant and still got their lives immediately dispatched. And there's this sense of relief and then you just kind of euphorically start laughing because you just escaped certain death. This is a legitimately frightening situation. Okay, so Cole and Sheena sued Palis Rental Car Company for negligence and emotional distress. Last week, we went to the Vista courthouse for the trial. A jury was chosen and each side laid out their case in opening statements. And then seemingly out of nowhere after about a 15-minute break, both sides said they had reached a settlement. And quite frankly, we were quite surprised. >> Okay. So, did you get any detail? >> Did you get that? They assembled a jury. They started a trial. The whole time the company knew they were at fault. They knew they were negligent, but allowed the whole case to go to trial anyway. And only then did they agree to settle. Isn't this kind of like an abuse of the trial system or the court system or something, >> Dal? About what was involved with that settlement? >> I was hearing them go back and forth, but what they ended up telling the judge was that the number they agreed on agreed on was $350,000. Now, I spoke with Sheena and Cole about the settlement, and they tell me they're relieved to be finally be done with this. However, the money just can't repair the emotional distress that was caused by the high-risk police stop. my emotional state um was just unhinged and uh Cole didn't know how to deal with it. He sort of shut down and we just never could come together and have any sort of agreement in any way. >> Can you imagine the PTSDs you'd have anytime you saw a police cruiser in traffic? You would never want to rent a vehicle again. So it led to our separation and long drawn out of divorce took about a year and a half. >> Now in his opening statement, the lawyer for Payless Car Rental said the previous renter of the minivan returned it without checking it in and it was then mistakenly placed back in rotation. Now I asked the company for a statement about the settlement and they didn't send one back in 2023. The company told NBC7 response payless has safeguards in place to prevent unnecessary notifications to retrieve rental vehicles. Unfortunately, these protocols in this isolated incident failed. I don't believe pay less, which is probably now pay more because if there's a lot of outstanding litigation, they're probably going to have to up their prices. But I don't believe any company who knew they were at fault and let this drag on for two and a half years waiting for the court to assemble a jury and then only after they're ready to go to trial and everybody's ready to state their cases only then do they reach their hand across the aisle and say you know what I guess we will take a settlement. So I don't believe they had these policies in place. I don't believe this is an isolated incident either. After the settlement was announced to the jury, I saw a company representative reach over to Sheena and Cole and apologized to them. >> I don't think the company was genuinely sorry when they apologized. If they were sorry, they wouldn't have had these two people wait for two freaking years before they did something. The only thing they're sorry for is that they were wrong and they got caught. >> And then what about I mean obviously police played a role in this as they were trying to follow up on it. Were there any concerns with those actions? >> No, none. whatsoever. Uh both Asha and Cole say that although they were very scared during the stop, they understand why it happened the way that it did. And back in 2023, Oceanside Police told NBC in a statement that its officers did everything correctly when it comes to uh stopping a vehicle reported as stolen. >> If by doing it correctly, they mean every one of our officers got out of their cars and pointed their weapons at two innocent people, they need to rewrite their policy. There could have been a checks and balances, a double check system with that whole thing on the cop side as well. And another suggestion for pay less, maybe add an extra check box on the rental agreement verifying that this car has not been reported as stolen and then have the person who's renting that car right then just do a real quick check and then have the customer sign it before he or she takes possession. Simple fixes like these could save a lot of lives. Stop sending false reports to already scared children with uniforms, badges, and guns saying cars are stolen when they're really not. Leave your thoughts about this for the world in the Global Thought Police in the comments section below. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever rented a car, were pulled over, and your life was placed in jeopardy because of a mistake the rental car company made, exacerbated by the mistakes that law enforcement made? If you want to support this channel, you can do it for free. Just like this video, share this video with everybody you know everywhere you can on social media. Subscribe to the channel. Hit the bell notification icon. That way when I upload videos, you'll be one of the first to see it. If you want to support the channel further, the links are in the description. Donations are never anticipated, but they're always appreciated. I will see you in the next video. [Music]