An Uber driver arriving for a scheduled pickup near the Abington-Brockton town line was robbed at knifepoint early Wednesday morning by two men who flagged him down, demanded cash, and then disappeared into a wooded area before officers could catch them. The driver was not injured, but the suspects made off with roughly $450, according to police.
Abington Police responded to Brockton Avenue near the town line around 5:52 a.m. after the driver reported the robbery, as reported by WHDH 7News. Investigators say the two men flagged down the Uber, showed a knife, and demanded money before fleeing on foot. Despite an extensive search, police were unable to locate the suspects, who are described as two Black men with face coverings — one wearing a black sweater, the other in a dark blue hooded sweatshirt.
A Corridor With a History of Trouble
Brockton Avenue, also known as Route 123, is a busy commercial corridor stretching between Brockton and Abington, and it has drawn law enforcement attention before. The Abington Police Department handled a fraudulent vehicle purchase case involving stolen credit cards at a dealership on the same street in July 2025. Wooded parcels along the Abington-Brockton border have also complicated police work in the past — in February 2020, Holbrook, Brockton, and Abington police launched a multi-agency K9 search in a wooded border area after two armed robbery suspects fled a vehicle stop on foot, a case detailed by Patch.
Police are asking anyone with information about Wednesday's robbery to call Abington Police at 781-878-3232. The investigation remains active, and no arrests had been announced as of the latest update.
Rideshare Safety Concerns Extend Beyond Abington
The robbery adds to a string of recent incidents involving rideshare drivers being targeted in Massachusetts. In February 2024, New Bedford police arrested a 22-year-old man wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor after he robbed an Uber driver at knifepoint while wearing a bandana over his face, a case covered by CBS News. In August 2025, police in Lancaster investigated an attempted armed carjacking after an Uber driver was flagged down along Route 117, and in July 2026 an Uber driver from Lowell was held without bail after being charged with stabbing a passenger during a drop-off at Logan International Airport in Boston, according to CBS News.
The flag-down tactic used in Wednesday's robbery echoes a pattern seen elsewhere in the state, where drivers stopping unexpectedly on dark roadways have been exposed to opportunistic ambushes. Massachusetts lawmakers have taken note of the broader vulnerability: in December 2025, legislators evaluated Bill S.1247, which would establish specific criminal penalties for offenses committed inside rideshare vehicles during active trips, since existing statutes do not always distinguish crimes committed inside a rideshare from those in general public spaces.
State Regulators Weigh Safety Alongside Pay Protections
Massachusetts rideshare drivers have gained significant financial protections in recent years. Under a $175 million settlement with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office reached in June 2024, Uber and Lyft agreed to guarantee drivers a minimum of $32.50 per hour of engaged time, along with paid sick leave and occupational accident insurance, ending a four-year legal fight over whether gig workers should be classified as independent contractors.
Physical safety, however, remains a harder problem to legislate. In April 2026, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities opened a rulemaking proceeding to update safety regulations and background check standards for the more than 104,000 certified rideshare drivers across the state. Meanwhile, a July 2026 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found there is no federal requirement to track non-fatal assaults or robberies against rideshare drivers, even though Uber and Lyft voluntarily reported 52 fatal assaults and 4,469 serious sexual assaults nationwide across 2021 and 2022 combined.
MassDOT, for its part, announced a public design hearing in July 2026 for infrastructure and corridor safety improvements spanning 2.3 miles of Brockton Avenue between Brockton and Abington — though that project is focused on pedestrian and bicycle safety rather than crime prevention. For now, the identities of the two men who robbed Wednesday's Uber driver remain unknown, and Abington Police continue to ask the public for tips as the search continues.
