ONLY ON ABC7 NEWS.com: Woman upset after car stolen by FlightCar renter

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It's a case of the so-called new economy gone wrong; a local woman came back from a trip to discover a nightmare, and the headaches were only beginning.

The incident started back in April when Misty Rasche went to the airport and left her car with a service called FlightCar. When she came back, her car wasn't there and the problems only got worse.

FlightCar's concept is simple. Car owners get free airport parking and the company rents that car out to other drivers while the owner is away.

"In fact, I was probably one of their first customers, and the first couple years it was fine," Rasche said.

Rasche now calls herself a former customer because of this unpleasant surprise.

"I was told that the person who rented it as part of the car share was delayed in his return and that they were contacting him," Rasche said.

San Francisco police finally found the car littered with clothing, pillows and blankets.

"It looked like a wild party had been thrown in there with the cigarette butts, the ashes smeared everywhere and hypodermic needles being in the glove box," Rasche said.

FlightCar management filed the police report. FlightCar president Ryan Adlesh said he believes the car was stolen by the person who rented it.

"And I did a simple search of the man's name on the police report online and that name popped up multiple times for vehicle theft and other crimes," Rasche said.

FlightCar says the company does not do background checks on renters and that thefts are incredibly rare.

"To my knowledge it's happened less than a handful of times in over 50,000 transactions," Adlesh said.

They say they offered Rasche a settlement, but then, things got complicated. The loaner car they'd given her got damaged.

"When I came out of the car there was a big dent in the hood," Rasche said.

Rasche says she found a note taking the blame. FlightCar wanted her to fix the loaner before they'd pay for her totaled car.

"She obviously wanted us to figure that out, obviously the car was with her at the time," Adlesh said.

And then there was the value Rasche wrecked SUV. They offered her $6,000. She didn't like the amount, or the terms.

"That if I sign a settlement with them that I can never speak the words FlightCar out of my mouth again, and that's why I came to you," she said.

She also went to the San Francisco city attorney.

"We're going to try to find out, is it a pattern. We do understand that there are reports of similar kinds of things on Yelp. Obviously, we would need much more information than that," said Matt Dorsey, press secretary for the city attorney.

FlightCar says it would consider adding criminal background checks.

Rasche says she wants to warn other customers. "They rented my car to a thief," she said.

FlightCar said it offered Rasche a new settlement Thursday afternoon forgiving the damages to the loaner car and the bridge tolls she incurred while driving it. For the value of her old car, they say $6,000 is the highest they'll go.