Man Poses as Uber Driver, Attempts to Kidnap Student

By Joanna Rothkopf  |  September 9, 2015 | 9:15pm
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I get scared when I am walking home at night because I am a girl who is bad at punching who also looks like she is bad at punching. So, I am grateful that Uber exists to protect me from the outside world. But now you can’t even trust the people you are inside the Uber with you because sometimes they are the kidnappers.

On Monday, August 30, a 35-year-old man named Antonio D. Warren was arrested in Tallahassee, Florida after posing as an Uber driver and attempting to abduct a 19-year-old student at the local community college.

According to the police, Warren picked the student up outside of her dorm at around 1 a.m. The woman noticed something was wrong when the driver began to take the wrong route to her desired destination. He then pulled over at a gas station, exposed himself to her and demanded she perform sexual acts. She managed to escape.

Warren has been charged with kidnapping with intent to commit a felony and is being held at Leon County Jail on $15,000 bond.

This is not the first time an unlicensed man has attempted to take advantage of the fact that Uber is reliant upon people being trusting enough to get into strangers’ cars.

This Sunday, September 6, a faux uber driver/guy with a car attempted to pick up two women around 2 a.m. at Texas Christian University, saying that a scheduled passenger had canceled their ride. The man dropped them off across campus after asking one of the women for a hug. He did not ask for payment.

“Uber driver partners are prohibited from accepting street hails,” said Uber in a statement. “All trips must be requested through the app… Before the trip, riders can see the driver’s first name, photo, license plate number, a picture of the vehicle, and the driver’s rating. We encourage riders to double check all these details and make sure they match the driver and car.”

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Image via Shutterstock.

 
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