My girlfriend and I had decided on a last minute bargain package deal to Florida. We’d been lucky enough to get a really cheap last minute fly-drive deal that gave us 7 nights to explore Orlando and enjoy the Gulf coast.

We flew from Gatwick to Orlando airport and went straight to the car hire desk to collect the keys to our car. We’d pre-booked our first two nights in the Clarion Hotel and a hire car for the duration of our stay. If we liked the hotel our plan was to stay put, otherwise we would be free to move on to another location.

We spent our first night recuperating from our journey making us ready for a day spent sight-seeing and shopping. We finished the day at a fantastic fish restaurant that served some really delicious seafood with great service and entertainment thrown in. It was on the drive back to our hotel that things took a turn for the worse.

We were on the highway and a police car pulled in behind us and indicated that we should stop. The police officer told me that one of my car brake lights wasn’t working and he asked me to step out of the car to take a look. I told the police that we had just hired the car after arriving from the UK only yesterday. The helpful police officer suggested that I should open the trunk so that he could take a look at our faulty lamp.

He shone his torch into the boot and immediately we could see traces of what looked like a white powder all over the trunk lining. The police officer’s helpful manner changed immediately as he returned to his car where he spent some time communicating on his radio. It was only a couple of minutes before a second police car arrived with two police officers inside. We were told that we needed to accompany them to the police station to answer some questions.

At the station it became clear that the police suspected that our story wasn’t true and that we were in fact international drug dealers who had just emptied a trunk load of cocaine somewhere in Orlando. My girlfriend became quite distraught by the whole experience. It took no less than nine hours for the police to finally corroborate our story and verify who we were.

Luckily there were still people working at the car hire office, even at that late hour, and they were able to provide police with details of the person who had hired the car prior to us. I’ve no idea whether the police ever caught up with the person responsible for carrying cocaine in the boot of our hire car.

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Travel tip: We saved a fortune on airport parking by booking online, in advance. Also, make certain that your travel insurance policy covers you for legal expenses abroad.