Fired Hertz employee accused in road rage incident
Oct. 7—A former Hertz car rental employee is wanted by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office after being accused of following and causing damage to his supervisor's car Thursday.
The road rage incident occurred the same day Luke Martinez, 24, was fired from his job.
The supervisor told the responding deputy he fired Martinez Thursday morning, but did not provide a reason for his termination. According to an incident report, the victim told deputies Martinez was upset and said he would be hearing from his lawyer.
At about 5:30 p.m., while driving home, the supervisor said he spotted Martinez's vehicle parked at the La Cienega exit off of Interstate 25. He added Martinez's vehicle started following him from the exit onto Los Pinos Road, according to the incident report.
In an effort to prevent Martinez from finding out where he lives, the supervisor said he drove onto County Road 54B. According to the incident report, he waited until he no longer could see Martinez's car before turning around and heading home.
However, once the supervisor began traveling south on 54B, he told deputies he saw Martinez's car driving northbound toward him.
As the supervisor's car and Martinez's white Ford Ranger moved toward each other the Ranger swerved into the supervisor's lane, as if he was going to crash into him. According to the incident report, the car evaded a collision but went partially off-road.
The supervisor told deputies his car suffered a flat tire, and estimated it would take about $200 to get it replaced.
Martinez sent his onetime boss a text message — pertaining to company drama — while he was recounting the incident to law enforcement. The responding deputy called Martinez on the supervisor's phone, according to the incident report, but the suspect simply repeated "talk to my lawyer" a number of times before hanging up.
Martinez was found to have an active warrant for his arrest for reckless driving, according to the incident report. A separate warrant was issued for Martinez stemming from Thursday's incident.
