Grabbing an quick ride from a car service like Uber is great, but have you've ever considered what it's like to be the one behind the wheel? All jobs have their perils, and these Uber drivers have some insane stories about some of the craziest people they've ever had in their car.
The Perils Of Marriage.
“Picked up a guy in the middle of the day from a bar. As soon as I got on the freeway some lady started tailing me and constantly beeping at me. I freaked out a little, and he said ‘That might be my wife, don’t worry she’ll stop following soon.’ She followed us for the whole 20-minute ride, non-stop beeping. Once we got there, he practically jumped out of my car and ran for the door. She followed him in her car, almost hitting him. Last thing he said to me, ‘Don’t ever get married!'”
So Many Questions With This Story.
“Two guys tried to use me as a getaway car after robbing a bowling alley. They ran away before the cops showed up and as I was pulling up the cops pulled their weapons on me & then put me in handcuffs.”
Nothing Could Prepare Her
“So I had been picking up and dropping people off around downtown Fullerton for a bit, when I got a request in a neighborhood about 5 minutes away. I get a little lost initially, because the map directs me to the alleyway behind the house. The guys get in, buckle up, and I start the ride on the app. I’m just getting ready to pull away from the curb when a cop car pulls up alongside me. Then the cop puts on the spotlight. Then we hear the sirens. A dozen or so cop cars pull up in front and behind us, surround and blocking the street. I’m starting to worry. Did I make an illegal u-turn or something? I’m trying to think what I could possibly have done to warrant this.
And then I start to panic. I had realized earlier in the day that I had an edible in one of my bags in the trunk. I moved it into my purse so I could take it home because I didn’t want to be driving around with it in this car. I’m definitely going to jail now. As I’m thinking this, one of the cops gets out with a K9. A voice comes over one of the cops loudspeakers.
‘TURN OFF THE CAR.’
‘THROW THE KEYS OUT THE WINDOW.’
Luckily I already had the window down, so out they go.
‘STICK YOUR HANDS OUT THE WINDOW.’
‘OPEN THE DOOR AND GET OUT OF THE CAR WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD.’
I do so, and they tell me to back up to the sound of the voice. I back up, officer grabs me and pats me down. Do I have anything in my pockets that will hurt him? No, just chapstick. Again, surrounded by cops, all with their spotlights on. I’m about to cry, I’m freaking out for myself, but my passengers aren’t white and I’m honestly a little worried for them. So many cops, I have no idea what I did, and I have no idea what’s gonna happen.
I get passed off to another cop, who takes me across the street and sits me on the curb. I’m almost hyperventilating now, to the point where the cop says for me to take a minute and breathe, because he’s scared I’m gonna pass out. I calm down a little and while I’m taking a minute, I see them get the guys out of my car and they actually cuff them and sit them down a few feet apart on the curb.
The cop asks me what I’m doing, I explain I’m a Lyft driver, picking these dudes up, and the app is still open on my phone if he wants to check. He asks a few more questions, like do I know these guys, what time did I get the request, and what time did I get here. I’m talking to this cop and out of the corner of my eye, watching them take the dog to my car. I guess he didn’t smell the edibles, nothing ever came of that.
The cop walks to check on the guys, comes back, and says apparently they matched the description of two guys who stole a car in the neighborhood. They saw me pick them up and I could have been an accomplice or whatever. Well it wasn’t those guys, and I’m free to go, but they’re gonna have to tow my car. I immediately burst into tears. And the cops is like, ‘Oh no no, I’m just joking, trying to lighten the mood!’
So I get up and he’s walking me back to my car and asks how long I’ve been Lyfting. I said, ‘Oh, this is my third day.’
The last thing he said to me almost started me into hysterics again: ‘Well now you have an interesting story to tell. Yeah, it’s not every day we pull people out of their cars with fully loaded weapons.’
WHAT?”
Uber Drivers Can Easily Call The Cops If Needed.
“I am an Uber Black driver. Once I picked up a couple in their 40’s. They were clearly not having a good time, still arguing about something. Towards the end of the ride he punches her in the face as hard as he could. When we pull up at the destination he pulls out a knife and starts to threaten her and me. I tell him to take it outside and I drive away. Then I drove to the police and told them what happened. Luckily the Uber Black cars have a camera inside that recorded the events.”
She Just Needed A Break.
“I had a woman climb into the front seat and then the woman who had requested the Lyft hopped in the back. The woman in the front immediately passed out. Turns out the woman who had requested the Lyft did not know this woman in the front. She was a lady of the night who just climbed into the car because I sat waiting in her area long enough. Once I realized this woman was a stranger, I pulled over, woke her up and kicked her out.”
Blow Up Dolls Need Ubers Too.
“One time someone put a blow up doll with two 40s duct taped to the doll’s hands in my passenger seat and said that the Uber was for her. He closed the door and I just drove me and the doll to the destination.”
Maybe He Forgot The Safe Word.
“My best friend drives for Uber and last New Years she picked a guy up and he was wearing full adult leather gear. His girlfriend kicked him out during foreplay and all he had was his phone to call for a ride.”
Ride Of A Life Time
“I experienced the craziest, arguably most sad situation I’ve been part of while driving for Uber. I haven’t driven for Uber since. On this particular night, I received a peculiar request for a ride. The request came in, and everything seemed normal. He was three miles away, according to his request. As I’m driving to the pick up location, I get a phone call. It’s my passenger. Basically he says, ‘Hey man, I’m not actually at that location. I just had to put that so someone could come get me. I’m too far away from any other drivers, so the app made me put my location in your city, closer to other drivers. Come pick me up at my drop off location.’
This is okay with me, because I am getting paid to go pick him up. To my surprise, he lives over an hour away. Score, this is about to be easy money. About an hour and a half passes, and I roll up to a small little house in a decent area. I text my passenger, ‘Hey man, this is your driver. I’m outside!’
‘Cool, I’ll be out in a second.’
Out walks a guy, about 23 years old. Really handsome guy, he could have been a model. Thick brown hair, scruffy facial hair, nice smile, everything. He was charismatic and outgoing as well. He has an open bottle of a very strong drink in one hand, and sprite in the other as he walks to my car. Knowing this is against the law, I’m hesitant to let him in my car. But, I drove over an hour to pick this guy up, so I wasn’t about to turn him away because of his drink. He asks me if we can run into an ATM really quickly. I oblige, so get gets to the ATM. He gets $10 cash. He gets back in the car, and takes a swig of his drink, with the bottle ¾ full at this point. I ask him where he wants me to take him tonight.
‘Atlanta. It’s not a great part of town that we’re going in, but just trust me man, it’s all going to be okay. I promise.’
‘I’m calm man, don’t worry about that.’
We hit the road. Atlanta is two hours away from where we are at this point.
It’s a long ride, so we begin talking. I learn a lot about him. He’s wasted. He drinks every day, so his wasted state is actually incredibly coherent. He’s really smart. He’s a former UGA student and wanted to be a doctor. He dropped out of school and is now homeless and addicted to pills. He also has low self-esteem and doesn’t know what to do with his life. He is a self-proclaimed hot mess.
I find all of this to be interesting. I tend to be decent with people who are troubled in life, so I do what I can to try to talk to this kid. I want to help him. I want to relate to him. To get through to him. He clearly has his hands full with life. I ask him, ‘What’s your favorite thing in the world to do? Like, you have 24 hours to do this one thing. What do you do?’
He mentions some very hardcore substances.
‘Okay, lets spin the wheel again. Not quite the answer I was looking for.’
‘I like pills, man. Video games too. But mainly pills.’
‘Do you think you have a problem?’ I ask.
“Not really. I’ve been to rehab twice before. But I’ve never done it for myself. I only went because other people made me.’
I get a feel for this guy. He continues drinking his bottle. I’m going to get arrested if I get pulled over with this guy drinking this bottle in my car. Right before I get to the gas station, he accidentally spills his Sprite in my (new) car. This is where I began to see first hand his low self-esteem. When he spilled his Sprite, he started cursing himself. Talking about how he always messes everything up. About how he can never do anything right. He makes things worse for everyone. I assure him that he’s okay. I tell him I’ll clean it when we get to the gas station. We arrive. I tell him to go to the bathroom. I clean the spilled drink. No harm no foul. No big deal. When he comes out, I tell him everything is okay, and the car is as good as new. He’s still a little upset, but he gets over it.
Back on the road to Atlanta. We talk politics, religion, and some other things.
He passes out in my front seat from his drink He tells me to wake him up when we get to Atlanta. This is where things get interesting. And I mean truly interesting. He navigates me to a ghetto, run down, dark apartment. There are cops at every corner in this city, and I’m not exaggerating.
Just to give you an idea of how bad this part of town is, he tells me, ‘I’m going to run inside. I’ll be out in 3 minutes. PLEASE do not leave me here. Please. I’m begging you. I know it’s scary here, but please don’t leave me in this part of town. After this, you can leave me wherever you want. But please don’t leave me here.’
I have no idea what we’re doing at this terrible place, but I’ve found myself here at 4:00 a.m. with this guy. He gets out of my car, and runs to the third story of the apartment. Two minutes goes by, and he’s right back out in my car.
‘Alright man, we can go now.’
‘What on earth was that about man?’ I ask him.
‘I had to buy my some stuff. Pills.’
I just drove this guy two hours to a crack house. I’m gonna die tonight. I’m gonna die. We pull out of the dark parking lot. I’m JUST back into the main street, and he tells me to pull over to the side of the road. I oblige. He gets out, runs into the woods, and comes back with a bag. He grabbed his needles.
This kid is now sitting in my front seat with a very illegal substance. He takes off his shoe and sock. Ties his shoe laces around his ankle. This man is using a very illegal substance while I’m driving my car. At any second, he could stab me with this needle and kill me. I am going to get thrown in prison with this guy. I’m transporting some sketchy stuff. Wow. I’ve gone this far with this kid. I’m not backing out now. I’ve gotta do something. I’m gonna help this kid.
‘Listen man. You’ve got a problem. You just spent $175 in rides to get to Atlanta, for $10 worth of this stuff. Do you see the problem here?’ I directly ask.
He stays silent. The substance kicks in almost immediately. He’s super drowsy, incoherent at this point, trying to stay awake. He injected more than he realized, and his heart is slowing. He assures me he’s not going to die. He lets out a little laugh. He’s about to pass out, but he tells me to take him to a gas station. I take him to the one he requested. He gets out of my car, and stumbles into the woods at the gas station. I am watching his every move, seeing if he is going to rob this gas station, or whatever it is he is doing. He starts digging in the ground. Like a dog who is making a hole. He’s digging for about three solid minutes, then he makes his way back to my car. He found the stuff that he had hid last week, when he thought the cops were following him.
He then buys vinegar at the gas station. He then dilutes his rock in the vinegar, and starts shooting up into his foot in my car.
‘Take me to the hospital. I need to go to rehab. You’re right. I’m addicted. When you told me how much I spent on the ride to buy this stuff, that was a wake up call.’
At this point, he’s on the verge of tears. And so am I. I take him to the hospital. On the way there, he starts crying.
‘You’ve been a better friend to me than anyone I’ve ever known. Why? I don’t get it. There MUST be a reason that you were the one who was sent to pick me up tonight. It’s a sign. I don’t know who you are, but you’ve been a better friend to me tonight than I’ve ever had in my life. Why are you helping me? I’m a mess-up. You should have left me hours ago.’
I’m crying while driving this guy. I just want him to get better. We get to rehab at the hospital. I walk in to check this guy in. He stays in the car. I tell the receptionist what’s going on. The receptionist follows me to my car. Along with the police man, who was sitting next to him at the front desk. The cop is a huge pain in the butt at this point. He tells my passenger to get out of my car and put his hands up. After searching him, he tells him to gather his paraphernalia and he takes him inside. The officer tells me to follow. He is interrogating the kid, just relentlessly questioning him, and the kid is crying. He keeps saying, ‘I don’t want to go back to jail. I just want help. I don’t want to do this anymore.’
I step in and pretty much tell the officer to chill out, and quit intimidating the guy. The officer then pulls me aside and threatens to arrest me. He backs off the kid and starts interrogating me, telling me that I’m just as guilty as he is, and that I should be in prison right now. During his interrogation with me, the passenger says that I know nothing. I’m just an Uber driver. After my passenger mentions that, the officer tells me to get straight out of there. I left.
Today, I have no idea what came of the situation. I don’t know if the kid got the help he needed. If he went to jail. If he went home. Nothing. I have no idea.”
The Uber Ride Is Not The Club.
“I’ve had people do coke in the backseat. I’ve had barely conscious people have strange incoherent conversations with imaginary friends in my backseat. I’ve had people take selfies of me, distracting me. I’ve had girls grab my steering wheel. I kicked them out. I’ve had people honk my horn. Adios. People blast your radio to 100% all the time. And if you don’t take the abuse, they rate you a 1 star and you’re one step closer to being fired.”
You Might Not Want To Advertise That Story.
“My friend is an Uber driver too and he was telling me how this girl peed in his car. I am out driving the following week and this passenger was telling me how she peed in some guys car the previous week. When we got to her destination and she got out and I told her I knew the driver who’s car she peed in. I don’t drive passed 2am for that exact reason.”
At Least He Was Nice About It.
“I had a customer tell me they needed to bring their pregnant goat with them. I had to politely refuse.”
Party At The Hospital.
“Had a girl so wasted she passed out. Couldn’t wake her. Called the paramedics and they had to slap the snot out of her to wake her up. ‘Hey, are you ready to go to the hospital?’ ‘Woo… Let’s go…’ ‘Alright she said it! Let’s move her out!'”
What Just Happened Here?
“Around 2am I picked up two guys and a lady, late-40’s-ish, all quite wasted. The moment they climb in the car, the lady and one of the guys in the back seat get really hostile. She’s threatening to punch him in the face while the guy in the front seat eggs her on and the guy in the back seat keeps yelling that he is chill. As I’m beginning to consider pulling over the guy in the front seat starts suggesting that they all should be friends. His plan for patching things up consisted of her showing them her chest. It took her about 15 seconds to decide that it was a solid plan and happily presented her pleasure pillows. It culminated with the guys touching her chest in a manner reminiscent of a pair of 8 year-olds petting a hedgehog.”
The CD Changer Bandit.
“One average looking guy got in and insisted on sitting in the front seat. Soon after departing, he was fiddling with something in his hands, and finally said, ‘Wanna see me make this paper clip disappear?’
I was thinking ‘oh no, he’s going to “disappear” it into my eyeball or something’.
Nope, CD changer. It still doesn’t work.”
Don’t Kill The Driver.
“I drove two young girls home around 3am on a Friday night. Quiet and polite passengers but when they get out I find they’ve literally stabbed up my back seat and dash cam review shows they were making threatening gestures at me during the trip. They paid for a new seat. Attacking someone driving a car you’re in seems suicidal but wasted girls be crazy. I watch the rearview closer now.”
