Hertz apologizes after refusing rental car to Puerto Rican customer

A worker at the rental chain demanded to see the American man's passport, apparently unaware that the island is part of the US

The US rental car giant Hertz has apologized and pledged to retrain its staff after an employee denied a Puerto Rican customer a prepaid vehicle on the mistaken belief that he was from a foreign country and needed a passport.

During the encounter with the customer at New Orleans's Louis Armstrong international airport, the Hertz employee also called over a law enforcement officer even though Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898 and has a (non-voting) member of Congress, according to a stunning report the CBS correspondent David Begnaud published on Twitter and Instagram late Saturday.