An Uber Eats driver is accused of groping a woman and not allowing her to leave his car after offering her a ride, California police say.
The woman told police she was out with friends at the Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, a city on a peninsula in San Diego Bay, early on Sunday, Sept 29, the Coronado Police Department said in a Facebook post.
Afterward, the group walked the woman to a bus stop, where she tried to book an Uber to the Naval Amphibious Base, police said.
An Uber Eats driver approached the woman and offered her a ride, adding that “he needed to make a stop first”, police said.
The woman accepted the man’s offer and got into the car, according to police.
While the pair drove, “the driver began making inappropriate comments and groping her,” police said.
He stopped at a restaurant to pick up an order, and the woman tried to leave the car, according to police.
However, “the driver pushed her back inside and shut the door,” police said.
As the man was picking up food inside the restaurant, the woman escaped, police said.
She ran to a nearby business and called 911, but the driver had fled by the time officers arrived, according to police.
“We are deeply unsettled by the rider’s reported experience,” an Uber spokesperson said in an Oct 1 email to McClatchy News. “We take reports like this very seriously and are standing by to assist the Coronado Police Department in their investigation.”
The spokesperson said the company’s community guidelines prohibit “off-app trips”, adding that users “should only take trips they have requested through the Uber app”.
Police said they will provide additional information about the “sexual battery and false imprisonment” case as it becomes available. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service
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