The CEO of a Manhattan startup says an Uber driver kidnapped him in Washington, DC, Tuesday and took him on a high-speed chase across state lines.
“Was just kidnapped by an @uber driver in DC, held against my will, and involved in a high speed chase across state lines with police #Crazy,” tweeted Ryan Simonetti, who started the hospitality company Convene.
https://twitter.com/rwsimonetti/status/486574153000968194
Simonetti hailed an Uber car after a DC meeting to go to his company’s new office in Fairfax County, Virginia, with two co-workers, according to the Washington Post.
“I’m a diehard Uber fan,” he told the paper.
When they approached the car, they spotted a taxi inspector talking to the driver.
Simonetti sat in the front seat, while his co-workers got in the back.
When the inspector walked away to check out some documents from the Uber driver, the hack just took off.
The inspector turned on the lights in his Taxicab Commission vehicle and began pursuing them.
The Uber driver told him it was no big deal. “Oh no, he’s not a real cop,” he said, and then apologized that they would have to run a red light.
The driver then went into the 9th Street Tunnel and raced down the highway for eight or 10 minutes.
“It was like an episode of ‘Cops,’” said Simonetti, who yelled at the driver to slow down so he could jump out of the car, and ripped off his pant leg trying to get him to slam on the brakes.
The Uber car nearly smashed into other cars several times, but the driver told Simonetti that if he stopped, he would get slapped with a $2,000 fine by the inspector.
“I physically tried to force his leg to hit the brake,” Simonetti told the Washington Post. “I said, ‘Here’s two options. You take this exit, or I’m going to knock the side of your head in. If we crash, we crash, but you’re gonna kill us anyway.’”
When the Uber car reached an exit ramp, the taxi inspector pulled ahead so the Uber car couldn’t pass.
Simonetti and his co-workers got out of the car, but the Uber driver turned around and went the wrong way up the ramp.
It is not clear if he was ever apprehended.
“Thanks everyone for the concern,” Simonetti then tweeted. “We’re safe. @uber and law enforcement are dealing with it now.”
Uber recently shocked Wall Street after a round of financing gave it a $17 billion valuation, despite warning signs including regulatory push-back from cities and questions about its ability to ensure drivers are licensed and insured.