‘They found fentanyl on the steering wheel’: Alberta man demands more oversight from Turo rental service

A Calgary man says he was detained for hours at the Canada-U.S. border after traces of fentanyl were found inside the car he rented on Turo. Kathy Le has more.

An Alberta man is demanding accountability after he says his car rental experience, purchased through the app Turo, went sideways on Feb. 19 when traces of fentanyl were found inside the vehicle.

“It was shocking, and it literally flipped my life over,” said Krisztian Riez, who lives in Calgary.

Turo is like an Airbnb, but for vehicles. According to the company’s website, the peer-to-peer car sharing app has 340,000 active vehicles and millions of users.

Riez rented a vehicle for the day to go and pick up his friend in Montana and drive back to Calgary. Crossing the U.S. border was no trouble, but returning back to Canada was.

Riez says Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers asked to search the rental vehicle he and his passenger were in.

“I was like, ‘well I’ve got nothing to hide, go for it,’” said Riez.

“Long story short, they found fentanyl on the steering wheel and in the backseat.”

After finding remnants of fentanyl, Riez says officers took everything out of the vehicle, and sent dogs in.

“They went into my business. They went into every nook and cranny of my life, as well as the passenger’s life, thinking that we were drug dealers or drug smugglers.

Riez says the search took three hours, was traumatizing and triggered his PTSD. He said officers said they found 2 mg of fentanyl.

“They made the conclusive understanding that based on that residue that it was from somebody before us or somebody before us was connected to Turo who was driving that car who dropped the car off,” said Riez.

“Me and the passenger were in disbelief. I’m like, ‘this is nuts.’”

Riez says he is relieved that his friend and infant goddaughter, who were supposed to join him on the trip, cancelled at the last minute because officers said there was “enough fentanyl in the vehicle to kill her.”

CTV News reached out to the CBSA, and in an email it said it “cannot comment or provide details on specific cases as a person’s border and immigration information is considered personal information and protected under the Privacy Act.” And that “being referred for secondary examination is a normal part of the cross-border process and should not be viewed as any indication of wrongdoing.”

Riez filed a freedom of information request to retrieve documents to show that his rented vehicle was searched. Despite this, Turo disputes his claims about the drugs saying to CTV News in an emailed statement that “allegations regarding the presence of fentanyl in the vehicle are not supported by the records available to Turo.”

The San Francisco-based company restricted the use of the vehicle, but Riez says to his surprise it was relisted the next day.

“I think when someone says they’re going to restrict the vehicle, they hold that vehicle and they do an investigation,” said Riez.

Turo says it confirmed with the owner of the vehicle that it was thoroughly cleaned before being relisted and that it’s confident in its “safety standards and longstanding policies requiring clean, safe vehicles.”

Riez says that’s not enough and wants Turo to do more, but that might be difficult.

Turo ‘not able to physically inspect the cars’

In an email to Riez, Turo explains that its Terms of Service states that because the company doesn’t own any of the cars it’s “not able to physically inspect the cars” shared on the platform before each trip. The burden is then put on the hosts “to ensure their cars are shared in a clean, safe and legally compliant condition.”

Turo has offered to refund Riez for the entire ride and compensate him for his time at the border, but Riez has refused, saying he wants to see change.

“I want reform. Public change and reform. Not just for Turo but for all ridesharing companies to take hazardous substances seriously and to have policies in place and really think about the customers that they’re trying to keep safe.”

Furthermore, Riez wants more oversight.

“Accountability. An investigative body that looks at car sharing or car sharing companies as a whole and investigates them with protocols, safety procedures to ensure Albertans and Canadians are safe,” said Riez.

Daniel Tsai, Law Business and Technology Adjunct professor at the University of Toronto says implementing a regulatory body might be challenging due to various levels of bureaucracy.

“Are they regulating the owners or are they regulating the previous driver or are they regulating the apps, the third-party apps?” said Tsai.

“And who is going to actually administer it? Is it a provincial thing or a municipal issue?”

Despite the challenge, Riez isn’t giving up. Saying he feels it’s his responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else.

“Having that over my head is huge. That’s scary.”