A writer for San Francisco blog SFist says her Uber driver threatened to rape and kill her Thursday night after he became outraged that he couldn’t find her location. After she published her disturbing account of the incident, she reported Uber called to apologize and let her know it has cut ties with the driver.
Eve Batey said she was leaving drinks with coworkers Thursday when she got a call from the Uber driver en route to her location. He apparently couldn’t find her, and was already irate.
“I am at 400 Duboce Avenue and you are not there. Where the fuck are you? What kind of person isn’t there when they call an Uber?” she alleges he said over the phone.
Batey says she became uncomfortable at this point—understandable!—and cancelled the ride, but that wasn’t the end of the unpleasant encounter.
Here’s her account of what happened when the driver found her:
“How about I stick my dick in your pussy?” the driver screams. “I see you there, look at me, I see you there on your phone.”
“I canceled the ride” I said. (I will never forgive myself for not having a snappier comeback to the dick/pussy thing but like I said, I was tired.) I hang up.
The driver of the sedan backs down the Muni platform’s ramp, then drives forward, past me, slowly. This is when it occurs to me that this might actually be going from a conversation with an asshole to a truly fucked situation. I backed into the gate at 400 Duboce, vaguely thinking that I could start ringing the doorbells on the gate if things got more nuts. My phone rings again. I’m not sure why, but I answer it.
“CANCEL THE RIDE!” he screams. “I did!” I say. “You fucking bitch, I’m going to find you, rape you, and kill you” he responds. “I’m calling the police,” I say.
She did call the police—she says the abusive driver kept trying to call her phone while she was talking to them—and she also contacted Uber.
Although the company was initially slow to respond, someone from Uber’s “safety team” eventually contacted her after her story started getting traction on social media, with assurances that the driver never had her phone number and no longer had the ability to contact her through the app.
An Uber spokesperson followed up, letting her know the driver had been banned from using the app:
“We want to offer our deep apologies for this terrible ordeal and thank you for bringing this to our attention. This kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable and the driver’s access to Uber has been permanently removed.”
Batey notes she’s cooperating with the SFPD’s criminal investigation into the driver, and points out that San Francisco’s District Attorney filed a complaint against Uber in August for allegedly using background checks less thorough than those of the taxi industry.
[SFist. Photo: Getty Images]