Storyteller (17:55)
I live in a city with a public transportation system. They have been extremely short staffed and more often than not you have to call just to make sure your bus is even coming. On weekdays, during business hours, the public transit operator will order a lift for you to get to work if your bus isn't showing up or or if they're short a driver. Tuesday I'm at the bus stop after checking multiple Times if my bus is coming only to find out that it wasn't. They ordered me a lift and this nice older gentleman was my driver. We had a casual conversation and he started to ask personal questions. I'm a bartender and I'm super friendly already, so I didn't think his questions were ill intentioned. I told him I'm not married and that I'm pretty much a loner. I basically go to work and go home and spend time with my family. He then says, I'd marry you in a heartbeat. Again, I'm just thinking he's being funny or nice. I asked him to drop me off at the downtown grocery so I could pick up some things that I needed for work. When he stopped, he said that he was joking and that he's actually married and he has a son my age. He asked if I was interested in maybe meeting him. Since I have a terrible track record. I figured it wouldn't hurt meeting someone out of my circle and comfort zone. So I gave the man my number and we parted ways. The next morning he texts me and he asked if I needed a ride to work. I told him he didn't have to do that and that I was sure that my bus was going to be running this time. He said it would be his pleasure and that he'd pick me up at my house at 3pm Then about an hour later, he asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him before work. I told him I was busy and that I couldn't do that. Okay, I'll see you at three, he said. He shows up at three and he lets me know he's outside while I'm finishing getting my things together. I open the door and he's starting to walk up my stairs to my house. I told him I was ready and we could head downtown. When I get in the backseat, he turns around and he says that he has a confession. He told me from the time I took off my mask, his heart danced like a butterfly. He said that he hasn't been able to stop thinking about me since the day before and that he'd love to spend more time with me and that he'd even pay me for my time if I spent the day with them. That's when I started to feel super uncomfortable. The whole ride was really making me cringe. But I know when you're in a situation like that with a predator, playing nice is way safer than freaking out. He continued on the entire ride about how he loved me at first sight and he wanted to make me His Lebanese Queen. As we got closer to downtown, I started to feel relief. He dropped me off at my hotel and said see you tomorrow. That evening at work, I had checked my phone after a busy happy hour and he texted me multiple times. He sent me a picture of the hotel and he said he'd wait for me to get off to give me a ride home. I told him that I already had a ride, but thank you anyways. Thursday morning I'm out running errands with my mom and sister. He texts me and asks how early he can pick me up because he can't stop thinking about me. I asked him to please stop and that I was with my family. He continues to text me all day and evening, begging to see me, telling me that his heart is really aching to see his Lebanese Queen. I just kept telling him to please stop. Well, Friday morning it hit the fan. He tells me that he loves me no matter what. He then told me I told my wife about you and that I'm in love with you and I want a divorce. I told him to please don't do that and that it wasn't right to treat his wife like that. He said that it wasn't my fault they were drifting apart Anyways. Then he said that he was picking me up for dinner at 5:30 and that he's not taking no for an answer. I ignored the messages during the day and just went about my day. Around 5:25 my video doorbell rings and he's standing on my porch for at least 15 minutes. I told him that I wasn't home and that he should leave. He continues to text me and beg to come pick me up from my parents. I was actually home the whole time but I was too scared to let him know that I eventually called the non emergency police line but he had already left by the time I got through. I found a general report, but technically they can't really do anything unless he's standing on my porch actually threatening me. They advised me to report it through Lyft, so I did. I haven't heard anything since, but that crap was really creepy. Last year I was on vacation in Southern Europe with a large group of friends. We have been there for a while and we always took an Uber from our rented house to the city which had very nice bars and clubs. The thing with Uber is it allows very cheap and flexible transport but it also opens the door to a lot of creeps. Now I've had Uber drivers who are super cool but also extremely drugged up road ragers who drive like maniacs and think they're impressive. And it's always the worst. Once an attractive woman sits in the car, it feels like a lot of total creeps. I think now that I have her here in this situation where she can't flee, she's forced to talk and be nice to me for that very reason. The guys of our group always use their phone to call Uber so that no creep picks the ride specifically because a female name popped up. Some of my friends even use male fake names because of that. But the guy we had that day was by far the worst. It is late evening and Uber picks us up and drives me, a 27 year old male, another 27 year old male, a 25 year old female and a 24 year old female to the desired old town where we plan to go clubbing and drink while driving. The driver constantly looks at the two women in the backseat via the mirror. They only told me this afterwards. He kept starting conversations, but basically only addressed the girls who left, answering to the guys who gave short non detailed answers, basically signaling that we 1 don't want to talk and 2 don't think he needs to know our plans. To us he seemed way too pushy and he wasn't really that big on hygiene, giving off the classic this is exactly the scenario why we don't like booking Ubers vibe. Meanwhile, we can't wait to arrive to our destination and get out of this uncomfortable but not super horrible situation. But that crap really didn't feel too great. Especially when this guy didn't stop on the road but instead pulled into a parking spot. He started fumbling around with his phone and we were like, alright, this is weird, let's just get out and left the car. To our surprise, the guy then turned the car off and got out as well. We saw the red flag and just started walking away towards the bar area of the town without even saying a word. Cars can't enter the old town after 400ft. Once we reached the gates, we stopped because this was the meeting spot for the other half of our group who took a separate Uber and we found out that this guy was freaking following us and stopped as well. You know the classic circle that people form while talking where one guy is just kind of standing next to it because people don't let him in? Yeah, well we did that. We started making conversation about how long the others will take to get here, where they are right now, etc. And this guy keeps throwing in comments like he's part of the posse. Oh cool. Even more people for us to hang out. This must be a great evening. Then we texted our friends in group chat that we were changing the meeting place to this bar because the freaking Uber driver is following us around and we want to lose him. So one of us started leading the group at a quick pace through the streets. They are very small, lots of people, and tall old town buildings all around them. We made turns at every corner trying to lose the guy, but he follows. Finally we reached a big plaza where there were hundreds of people closely together, basically queuing to enter the narrow street that was up ahead. We pushed through like rude douchebags and successfully we lost the guy. Finally we could head straight to the bar after our detour and when linked up with the other part of our group, two hours pass and life is all good. We decided to head to another bar a bit further away because the drinks and prices kinda sucked in this one. We had two drinks in that bar and guess who walks through the door and stands right next to the table? That guy. Hey guys. At this point, one of our friends, a 28 year old male who's good at communicating and frankly quite big, tells the guy that we want to keep to ourselves and have no interest in hanging out with them and to please leave us alone. Fortunately, the guy says it's no problem and leaves. Unfortunately, at around 3am, while dancing in the crowd of the club, the same guy announced his presence by tenderly pressing his body against the back of one of the girls who's 24 years old, who he had been staring at through the mirror in the car. The girl's boyfriend, a 27 year old male, recognizes the guy, gets angry as hell, grabs him by the collar and essentially tells him that if he keeps following us, he will get the crap kicked out of him. A bouncer sees this and approaches them. I start talking to the bouncer, who was super annoyed by anyone intervening at first. But after hearing how this guy stalked us from his car to this club, he just asks the Uber guy a few questions, then proceeds to throw him out. We stayed a bit longer than we wanted in hopes of him not waiting for us. After that, we reported the guy for being a creep in the app and we called another Uber, which thankfully wasn't him. This past summer, for my graduation gift, my mom and grandma took me to Alberta, Canada to go watch the Spruce Meadows Masters tournament. If you don't know what that is, it's one of the world's largest horse shows. We flew out there. So we decided to use Uber to get to and from the showgrounds. We don't have Uber where I'm from but everyone said the Uber drivers in the area were really awesome. For the first three days the drivers were great. They picked us up within five or so minutes and got us there in 15 minutes tops. The cars were clean and safe. This is important. On day four, we had called for an Uber about 45 minutes before the time we wanted to be picked up at at 9.30am 10am rolled around and we thought we'd give it another 10 minutes before calling for a different driver. 1005ish. The original driver then comes. In his profile it said that he was driving a 2017 Dodge Journey but when he got there it was definitely the right guy. But he was in this old run down looking beater. My first instinct was to go up to the driver's window and ask him to roll it down. Before I could ask him his name, just to check to make sure and ask him what happened to the car of the app said he would be driving. He almost shouted at me in a very angry tone, yes, it's me. This is my sister's car. Mine's in the shop now. Get in ladies. I have other riders waiting for me. I was shocked and already scared at this point. I looked at my mom and grandma and they just said to get in. So I did. I sat in the back with my grandma and my mom sat in the front. We told him where we needed to go and we were on our way. He had taken a different route that he had claimed was quicker. On the highway in Calgary, 15 minutes is already pretty fast. 15, 20 minutes had passed and he had been chatting up with my mom in a very flirtatious way the whole ride. He had taken us into the countryside that seemed to be forever away from where we were going as it was actually the opposite direction. I asked him if he knew where we were going and if we were going to get back on the highway. He just ignored me and kept driving. Another 10 minutes passed and I was freaking the hell out. My mom was obviously quite uncomfortable as well and we were still in the countryside. He pulled over onto the side of the road and we just sat there for a solid five or six minutes. At this point I was shaking and I had to hold my grandma's hand. The driver turned around and put his hand on my leg but I quickly shifted away. Then he proceeded to look at all three of us and say, I'm sorry for the long ride, ladies. I know I've gotten out of the way, but you're all too beautiful for me to let you leave so soon. What the hell, man. I wanted to get out of the car immediately. We all just sat there in silence and all I could think of was, oh my God, this guy's going to kill us. He also made many other creepy remarks toward me, commenting on how youthful and full of life I am. Some real serial killer stuff. After sitting there in shock for what felt like hours, my sweet grandma screamed at him, telling him to turn around and get back onto the highway. He finally pulled off the side of the road and then continued on the country road. The whole way he just kept looking back at me and making increasingly sexual remarks. Then about an hour and a half later, we got to the grounds. As you can imagine, I was extremely shaken up and almost in tears. I wish we had just called another Uber. I really hope he doesn't do this to all of his female passengers. I'll never be taking a ride share again. To the Uber driver from hell. You made me miss like two hours of the show and you scared me half to death. I gave you zero stars. I hope I never encounter you again and I hope Uber fires you. This happened several months ago. At the time, I had recently lost my car due to a motor vehicle accident. So I walked for 30 minutes to the store, thinking I'd be able to beat the sunset back. But I was wrong. By the time I was done picking up my groceries, it was pitch black outside. The thing is, I live in a woodsy area where there are not even many sidewalks, so I didn't think it was safe to walk back. I tried getting my brother and cousin to pick me up and drop me off, but they wouldn't have been able to make it for a while. So instead I decided to get a lift. A photo of a suspicious looking, creepy old man popped up as my driver. I waited at the sidewalk for my ride and maybe like 10 minutes later, the driver arrived. It was a silver Toyota sedan and the driver was an old man wearing a baseball cap and he had large framed rectangular glasses. Pretty much instantly, something felt off about the man's aura, but I tried not to let it bother me too much. After all, my home was literally right down the street, I reminded myself. I asked him if I could put my groceries in the trunk of his car. He nodded. I dropped them in without noticing what was in the trunk of his vehicle, because where we were stopped, it was pretty dark with no street lamps. I held myself in the car and told him that I lived back there, pointing in the direction from which the vehicle had arrived, and that I let him know that he was only a three minute drive away from my home. I saw him nod, or so I thought, and as soon as the light switched to green, he made a right. I thought he was making the right to turn the vehicle around, but instead he drove past the main road that he was supposed to take to get me home. I let him know immediately that my home was that way while pointing in the direction, and he acknowledged it, but still kept going straight, claiming there was an issue with his gps. And he started driving us in the complete opposite direction of my home, where the roads were completely empty. Suddenly, I didn't feel safe. I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. In that moment of panic. I immediately reached for my phone to sos, assuming the worst. But then I stopped myself and told myself to calm down. Hey, make a U turn. I tried to tell the driver as calmly as possible. I didn't want him to hear the panic in my voice. He didn't respond. My request to turn around was completely ignored. I couldn't keep calm any longer, so I finally yelled for him to make a right and turn around. He reluctantly complied. Along the way back to the road that took me to my home, it felt like it was the longest three minutes of my life. But just when I thought that I'd finally be home safe, the driver then suggested an alternate route. Even though my home was a simple right and a right via the main road and very close by, I immediately felt that something was really, really wrong. I slowed down next to a woodsy, isolated path along the way, asking if I'd ever been that way before and that we could take this route. Instead, I froze again. I went into panic mode. But I forced myself to calm down so as not to let it be known that I was suspicious of him. I raised my voice once more, telling him that my home was that way, while pointing toward the main road, which wasn't very far. He finally obliged after some reluctancy, and he started driving back toward the main road again. The entire time on the way to my home, my heart was racing and my palms were sweating. We arrived in my complex maybe five minutes later, and I spoke to him very nicely so that he doesn't try something funny that would force him to react in such a manner that would actually put my life in even further danger. I told him I'd be tipping him well for such a short drive, which would be $10. I quickly hopped out of the car and jolted to the trunk to retrieve my groceries. As I grabbed my bags, I saw something that I hadn't noticed before because this time the street lamp surrounding my complex actually illuminated the trunk of his car. I froze as I grabbed my groceries and the trunk of his vehicle was rope and a mallet as well as a bag filled with some contents. I was trembling from fear. I ran up to my building so fast and checked outside my window as soon as I got up to my apartment just to make sure that he wasn't still lurking and watching. But thankfully I never had to hear or see from that old man again. My guess was that he had some evil, twisted intentions from which I miraculously escaped because for whatever reason, he decided to change his mind about the intentions he had for me that night. To this day, I can only guess as to what his intentions were, but judging by the items I found in the trunk of his vehicle, it's not something I would have ever wished to find out. I'm so glad that I trusted my instincts that day. My girlfriend just got out of a lift in Wrigleyville, Chicago, in the middle of a busy street. The driver picked her up in front of my house and suggested taking her to a dark alley rather than a busy road. My girlfriend of course refused and told him to take her to the main road. The driver was visibly angry and he was on the speakerphone with an unknown third party. He was speaking in another language. He had mentioned to her a specific address, a large apartment building. Then he proceeded to ask her in English if she lived at the address. My girlfriend smartly lied and said she was visiting a friend. The driver then repeated the address to the third party on the speakerphone. He then told her that her Lyft profile picture was hot. That's when she said, okay, I'm getting out now. They were at a red light and he looked shocked. She had to manually open the lock, open the door, and then get out in the traffic. She then called me immediately and I ran down the street to meet her halfway. I drove her home, circled her blog twice, keeping an eye out for that license plate number or any other lingering cars, and walked all the way inside the apartment building. If you're in Chicago, beware of a black Toyota Prius. I would like to say the license number here, but I don't want to get in trouble for doxxing, but they were very inappropriate to say the least. She's still very scared and uncomfortable. We reported this to Lyft, but does anyone know if we should call the police? No fun feeling unsafe, especially because we have no idea who he was talking to. We'll definitely be contacting the police through non emergency means and letting them know that it was an incident that makes us feel less safe. Unfortunately, I'm very aware that the Chicago Police Department prefers to do nothing when given the choice, but at least there will be a paper trail. After calling the police, they let us know the plate is registered to a rental firm. I'm really confused. How does Lyft allow that you just.
