A 25-year-old woman escaped a car driven by a man police believe was impersonating her Uber driver, leaping out while the vehicle sat stopped at a red light in Kent earlier this month. She had climbed into the car outside a Pioneer Square bar believing it was the ride she’d ordered, only to grow suspicious miles later when the driver missed her exit and a notification told her the real Uber had been canceled.
According to KOMO News, the woman told officers she had been at a bar in the 400 block of 1st Avenue South and ordered an Uber when she was ready to leave on Oct. 10. She got into a vehicle she believed was her ride without checking the license plate or the driver’s name first, the station reports, a detail Seattle police have since highlighted as a cautionary lesson for other riders.
Suspicion Grows Miles From Pioneer Square
Police say the woman didn't realize anything was wrong until the driver passed her exit and her phone buzzed with word that her actual Uber ride had been canceled. KOMO reports she then noticed the driver appeared to be navigating with Google Maps rather than the Uber app itself — though a separate account from MyNorthwest states the driver was not, in fact, following Google Maps directions and also wasn't using the Uber app, leaving some ambiguity about exactly what tipped her off beyond the canceled-ride alert.
Whatever the precise detail, it was enough. As the vehicle sat stopped at a red light in Kent, she jumped out and ran as the car sped off, per the KOMO report. A short time later, her friends found her near Military Road South and Kent Des Moines Road.
Suspect Described As Black Male In White Sedan
The woman described the vehicle to investigators as a white four-door sedan, and described the driver as a Black male between 30 and 50 years old, the station's reporting states. Seattle police said cameras in the Pioneer Square area were not functional and did not capture footage of the pickup, according to the same account, leaving investigators without video to help identify the driver.
Seattle police are asking anyone with information to call the department's Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000, per KOMO. Police also used the case to remind rideshare users to confirm a driver's identity and verify that the license plate matches what's listed in the app — guidance that echoes Uber's own safety instructions telling riders to check the plate against the app before getting in. Officers additionally urged waiting in well-lit locations, sharing trip details with others, monitoring the route during the ride, and calling or texting 911 if a rider feels endangered, the station notes.
Part Of A Troubling Pattern
This is not the first time Seattle has seen a reported fake-rideshare pickup. The Seattle Times has reported that detectives once investigated whether a 34-year-old Tukwila man arrested on suspicion of raping a woman who left a Ballard bar for an Uber ride in December might be tied to other crimes, noting that two women had reported comparable incidents in the city. In one of those cases, a woman got into a car outside a Ballard bar believing it was her Uber, later got a notification that her ride had been canceled because she was marked a no-show, and was dropped off by the driver. He later knocked on her apartment door, claiming she had forgotten her phone, and tried to force his way in; she pushed back and locked the door, the Times reported.
The phenomenon isn't limited to Seattle, either. WREG reported in 2018 that a Las Vegas woman, Elizabeth Suarez, had booked an Uber home after a night out with a childhood friend and ended up in the wrong car, realizing her mistake only after the real Uber driver called her while she was already on the road. Suarez told the station the man demanded her wallet, phone and belongings before she escaped by jumping from the moving car — an incident the outlet tied to a broader rise in complaints about fake rideshare drivers victimizing customers in big cities nationwide.
As first reported by KING 5, the investigation into the Pioneer Square pickup remains open as Seattle police continue seeking tips. No details have been released about whether the suspect vehicle or driver description has led to an identification.
