There is a myriad of options for young people to choose from these days, especially when it comes to entertainment and recreation. Whether it is hanging out at the hottest restaurants or enjoying the nightlife, the city of Houston provides so many opportunities for young people to consider, especially when you are considered a tourist destination.
As in most cities that are considered tourist destinations, a lot of young adults tend to gravitate toward the downtown area of the city and seek out activities and spots to visit and enjoy.
That was the plan that three young ladies had when they sought to have an enjoyable weekend in the city of Houston, while celebrating the birthday of one of the young ladies, but things turned out to be the complete opposite as they share their story with the Forward Times.
Lindsay Bush, who is a 23-year-old graduating senior at Old Dominion University in Virginia, flew into town to meet up with her two close friends, Olivia (21) and Jada (23). The young ladies had planned to celebrate Lindsay’s birthday, which was on September 3rd. Lindsay and her two collegiate friends, who attend school here in Houston, were excited to enjoy all of the fun things downtown Houston had to offer during her celebratory weekend but ended up having one of the most eye-opening, challenging, and traumatic experiences imaginable.
One of the things that Lindsay and her friends decided to do was rent some motorized vehicles to ride around and enjoy downtown Houston. They searched online, and found a company called Glyderz World, to which they decided to rent some motorized vehicles from.
According to TripAdvisor, which is considered the world’s largest travel guidance platform, Glyderz World is described as a company that provides “various e-scooter, moped, e-motorcycle, hoverboard and cycleboard rental options to enjoy the beautiful scenery downtown Houston has to offer.”
On their official website, Glyderz World states the following message for those interested in renting one of their motorized vehicles:
Our rentals provide green-powered transportation with no compromise. Check out our available stock and choose the one that best suits your needs. All rentals and tours require a valid ID, you must also sign a waiver and our online tour booking requires a deposit.
According to Lindsay’s mother, Themi Bush, upon arriving at Glyderz World in the early morning hours of Sunday, September 3rd, the three young ladies decided to rent their own motorized vehicles so they could each individually cruise around downtown Houston together to celebrate Lindsay’s 23rd birthday.
According to Themi, the young ladies were each given a contract to rent their own motorized vehicle. Lindsay, however, was asked to provide her Virginia-issued drivers license, to which the company told her they would need to hold her driver’s license until they returned with the motorized vehicles. That is not listed as a requirement on their official website, as stated earlier.
Back of GlyderzWorld contract
Sadly, through the course of hanging out and stopping at a spot in downtown Houston, one of the young ladies was robbed of one of the scooters by a person they believe may have been homeless. The suspect fled the scene, and a security guard tried to chase the man down after witnessing what had happened, but to no avail.
Distraught, the young ladies ended up walking back to the Glyderz World location, where they shared the unfortunate details with the employees.
This is where things get complicated and confusing.
According to Themi, the scooter that had been taken by the suspect was not the one Lindsay had rented. As a matter of fact, it was not even the scooter that was on her contract. Lindsay ended up returning the scooter that was a part of her signed contract. The scooter that was stolen, however, was rented by one of her other friends. Lindsay never signed a contract to rent that particular motorized vehicle. The young lady whose scooter was actually stolen agreed to a contract option, provided by Glyderz World, which allowed her to pay an extra “no ID” fee to secure the rental of her motorized vehicle. She signed the contract to rent her particular scooter.
Where things get murky, according to Themi, is when the employee the young ladies were dealing with told them that since they all were together as a group, they were going to have to hold on to Lindsay’s driver’s license until they got a police report.
This posed a major challenge, not only because they could not file a police report after the robbery because it was already 3am in the morning, but Lindsay needed her driver’s license to drive her actual car to the police station. Glyderz World had Lindsay’s car keys and her license in their possession upon rental of the scooters. According to Themi, Glyderz World refused to help them, and the employees told them they needed to get a police report and come back with the police report to retrieve Lindsay’s driver’s license.
The parents of the two other young ladies came downtown to try and seek a resolution to the situation, while Themi was out of town. Themi had to catch a flight to Houston to help her daughter file the police report. They were able to successfully file the police report and they immediately headed to Glyderz World to try and put this issue to rest. That didn’t happen.
According to Themi, she asked for the owner of Glyderz World and was told he was not available. They provided the manager with the police report, but the manager told them that they would need $1,000 to return Lindsay’s driver’s license. This was baffling to everyone, as this was the first time they had heard this requirement. Things were also becoming more complicated and time-sensitive, as Lindsay was scheduled to fly back to Virginia for school and needed her driver’s license to get on the airplane.
Police report filed relative to the incident
Themi states that after the police spoke to the employees at Glyderz World, they then turned around and reduced the amount from $1,000 to $500 to return the driver’s license.
The Forward Times is in receipt of the contract that Lindsay signed.
According to Themi, at no point did the representatives at Glyderz World show them an insurance document, liability document, or anything in the contract that specified that a $1,000 fee or a $500 fee would be required in these types of circumstances. They also would not provide a copy of the other contracts because they said it was associated with the other individual.
The question is, why would they hold Lindsay’s driver’s license because of another renter’s scooter being stolen, especially after returning the scooter she actually rented?
After a lot of back-and-forth discussion, Themi tells the Forward Times that the Glyderz World representatives told them that they would not return Lindsay’s driver’s license and told them that they could take the matter to civil court.
To date, Lindsay has not gotten her driver’s license back, but was able to travel back to school in Virginia on the airline with extra scrutiny. Again, Lindsay was the only one of three young ladies to rent the scooters that provided her driver’s license for her contract.
According to Themi, the police said they could not arrest the Glyderz World representatives for not returning the driver’s license because it is a civil matter. The young ladies gave the money for the rentals on each of their contracts, but nothing more. The one young lady who had her scooter stolen was going to give Glyderz World the $500 dollars, after feeling pressured to close the matter out and get Lindsay’s driver’s license back, but all of the families involved strongly felt that something was not right with the situation.
Themi tells the Forward Times that there was no way they were going to allow Glyderz World to just change the terms of a signed contract and seemingly take advantage of these young ladies. There was no claim. There were no insurance papers or documentation to justify the request for money to release the driver’s license. They believe this was a money-grab, and much more.
Themi is seeking to address this matter through the courts and potential legislation at the state level.
“My concern is that driver’s licenses are federally issued documents that are not to be handled by anyone but the issuer,” says Themi. “I need to understand what governing body in the U.S. allows a business to take possession of, keep, copy, and hold, live records of driver’s licenses and credit cards without any handling or disposal mechanisms in place.”
Themi states that with the Real ID Act of 2005, the government is now mandating that everyone has a Real ID with the scan barcode on the back of their license. She believes that any tech savvy person could try to obtain anyone’s life history that is captured in that bar code.
“At some point, it’s important that the law catches up to technology,” says Themi. “We must implement a bill to protect ourselves from the casual handling of these very vital records. Businesses should be held liable and be able to be held in criminal contempt for holding live records or holding our driver’s licenses for longer than expected, without a means or regulation in place to return said documents to the issuing body immediately. Further, it should be a criminal act to hold hostage said documents for a shakedown of a fee to get your driver’s license back without any explanation of the fee or without documentation to show you must pay a fee. This is concerning and I want our people to understand the gravity of safeguarding our personal information, and how this information needs to be protected at all costs.”
Themi tells the Forward Times that she is thankful that all the young ladies are alive and well but is upset that Glyderz World did not help them or provide aid to them.
“They left them to fend for themselves, knowing they were robbed,” said Themi. “We were out of town and flew in to deal with this. You have people operating a motorized vehicle in the city of Houston, at night, without a license. If anything happens to those renters, mostly young people, or the people on the street, they have no identification to identify themselves. I don’t know how anyone can look at this and not see that it is a huge problem.”
Themi believes that the city of Houston, and the state of Texas, should intentionally look at not allowing businesses to operate like this, nor allow them to unlawfully hold tourists hostage by demanding large amounts of money, if they want to be a major tourist destination.
“My concern really lies in the fact that this is a business operating in Houston, attracting tourists. My daughter having a Virginia license was an easy target,” says Themi. “It concerned me that they asked for $1,000 initially for the stolen scooter, that they have trackers on and insurance on, mind you, and then later said they’ll take $500. I don’t know what’s going on, but I would venture to believe that my daughter is not the first person that this has happened to. I’m from another country, so I am familiar with the shakedown tactics in Third World countries, but to see this happen in an American business, in the fourth largest city in the U.S., is disturbing.”
At the end of the day, Themi has one message to anyone, especially young people, renting out these vehicles. That message is:
“Do not release your ID to any company without a CLEAR understanding of the terms. Rental car places review your ID for validity and hand it back to you in the U.S, as an example. Whatever you do, do NOT give it up to ANYONE.”